Read the passage from the Tao Te Ching. Find the main idea. True words aren't eloquent; eloquent words aren't true. Wise men don't need to prove their point; men who need to prove their point aren't wise. The Master has no possessions. The more he does for others, the happier he is. The more he gives to others, the wealthier he is. –Tao Te Ching, Laozi What is the main idea of this passage? Good deeds are more important than fine words and possessions. The goal of life is to collect as many possessions as possible. People prove their worth with eloquent words. Wealth is determined by how many possessions people own.

1. what is significant about the power that russian federal cities are granted? 2. what is significant about official languages in russian republics? why would it matter?

What word best describes the tone of this excerpt from "the fall of the house of usher" by edgar allan poe? i looked upon the scene before me—upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain—upon the bleak walls—upon the vacant eye-like windows—upon a few rank sedges—and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees—with an utter depression of soul which i can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium—the bitter lapse into everyday life—the hideous dropping off of the veil. there was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart—an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. what was it—i paused to think—what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the house of usher? it was a mystery all insoluble; nor could i grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as i pondered. i was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among considerations beyond our depth. it was possible, i reflected, that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression; and, acting upon this idea, i reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down—but with a shudder even more thrilling than before—upon the remodelled and inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows. admiration terror hope discovery loss

Most white men in the antebellum south could best be described as a) plantation owners. b) seafaring traders. c) merchants or shopkeepers. d) nonslaveholding family farmers.