Read the excerpt from "On Becoming an Inventor" by Dean Kamen. When I was twelve years old and Barton, my older brother, was around fifteen, we took over the family basement. At first, I made a darkroom for developing pictures, and Bart was using it as his lab where he was raising about one hundred white rats, removing their thymus glands, and trying to figure out the glands' dysfunction. He wanted pictures taken of his experiment, doing the surgery on rats, and since I already had a darkroom, I took the pictures, though somewhat reluctantly. I didn't like the blood. Which part of the excerpt expresses an opinion? we took over . . . I made a darkroom for developing pictures . . . he was raising about one hundred white rats . . . I didn't like the blood.

Astudent wants to replace the underlined word to make the meaning more precise.which phrase would be the best replacement for the underlined phrase ?

Which line from the story of my life by helen keller is an example of a simile? during the whole trip i did not have one fit of temper, there were so many things to keep my mind and fingers busy. i was like that ship before my education began, only i was without compass or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the harbour was. one day, while i was playing with my new doll, miss sullivan put my big rag doll into my lap also, spelled "d-o-l-l" and tried to make me understand that "d-o-l-l" applied to both. child as i was, i at once felt the tenderness and sympathy which endeared dr. bell to so many hearts, as his wonderful achievements enlist their admiration.

Armed with invisible ink, a cipher system, and a passion to end the war and preserve the union, elizabeth van lew became butler's eyes and ears in the confederate capital city. truth be told, however, she became much more than that. she became a spymaster, the person responsible for running a network of agents, couriers, and safe houses that was very active during the war. in addition to the spying, elizabeth van lew continued to maintain her church hill home as a safe house and something of a local union spy headquarters. —the dark game, paul janeczko what is the central idea of this passage? van lew’s home was used as a safe house, which was critical to the confederacy. van lew had a passion to end the war and preserve the union. van lew was a spymaster, a leading force in the espionage activities for the union. van lew did not enjoy working for general butler.