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by Tina Tocco
The house was as still
as a cemetery

with gray shutters
and shingles
and stairs.

The windows' mouths
were painted shut,
so breath could neither enter
nor linger
nor leave.

The bedrooms were locked,
the cupboards were bare,
the carpet was gone. . .

And I shuddered like a child
in the dark,
asking once,
then again
and again

Why had I left?
Stayed away so long?
What had happened
in one short year?

Why does the author say "I shuddered like a child in the dark"?
A.
to show that the house had never been wired for electricity
B.
to show that the speaker wishes that she were still a child
C.
to show that the speaker is scared by what she has seen
D.
to show that there are still children present in the house
E.
to show that the house has been abandoned for a long time

Read the following excerpt from "the city without us" by alan weisman: yet with each new acid-free rainfall, trees that still endurewill have fewer contaminants to resist as chemicals aregradually flushed from the system. over centuries,vegetation will take up decreasing levels of heavy metals,and will recycle, redeposit, and dilute them further. asplants die, decay, and lay down more soil cover, theindustrial toxins will be buried deeper, and eachsucceeding crop of native seedlings will do better.which best explains how the structure of this passage supports the author's purpose? a. the passage traces several events in the order that they will occur tohighlight how people have harmed the environment.b. the passage describes the effects of rain in the posthuman world tohighlight that nature will eventually neutralize the pollution created bypeople.c. the passage shows the effects of rain on certain plants to prove that lawsprotecting the environment are necessary for human survival.d. the passage compares the acidity of rain before and during a posthumanworld to underscore that pollution levels will remain the same.