Read the following quote from Wharton's short story "April Showers": Theodora found herself in the wood beyond the schoolhouse. She was kneeling on the ground, brushing aside the dead leaves and pressing her lips to the little bursting green things that pushed up eager tips through last year's decay. It was spring--spring! Everything was crowding toward the light, and in her own heart hundreds of germinating hopes had burst into sudden leaf. She wondered if the thrust of those little green fingers hurt the surface of the earth as her springing raptures hurt--yes, actually hurt!--her hot, constricted breast!

1What aspect of feminism is Wharton pointing out in this passage?

2Women have a connection with the earth that men do not have.

3Women are more prone to silly emotions and unrealistic expectations than men.

4Women are more sensitive to nature, birth, and death than men are.

None of the alternatives shown above are correct.

Explanation:

In a first reading, we can think that the author is showing the strong connection that women have with nature and that this connection is not present in men, but that is not what this excerpt is trying to convey. The excerpt is intended to show the reader how women have very strong dreams, desires and ambitions, so strong as to increase their awareness of the environment and make their bodies react to it. This shows that women are capable of having ambitions as strong and as sweeping as men, as they are thinkable and reactionary beings, just like men.

question 1: d) the old man continued, "in the long run, what people think about shepherds and bakers becomes more important for them than their own destinies.'"

question 2: d) by providing a different perspective and encouraging the englishman to never give up, the boy him to discover the alchemist.

question 3: c) the stones he gave santiago the boy to recognize omens, which will him on his journey to find his personal legend.

question 4: d) when the englishman wants to quit, santiago doesn’t allow the englishman to give up.

question 5: a) by instructing the englishman to go and try, the englishman is motivated to continue on his journey toward his personal legend.

explanation: