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Practice Test Essay

     When you are really close to someone, you have a "friendship".  With that one word, you may think of someone who you have a friendship with.  Someone that you are really close with.  Jim and Antonia in My Antonia have a friendship with each other like that and so do Gina and Soo-Hyung in "Once Around Manhattan." They are close to each other, and they get along with each.

     In My Antonia, Antonia is staying with Jim and his family on the farm.  Antonia helps with the chores around the farm and no one minds that she is there.  It states in the story, "Grandmother was in high spirits the weeks that Antonia worked for us."  Which proves that no one minded that she was there.  This story shows that they have a strong friendship.  If someone wasn't really your friend, would they be in your house, and you not minding that they were there?  I don't think so!  Jim didn't mind.  Jim enjoyed having Antonia there.  Someone to hang out with while doing the chores.  It is easier to do chores when you are doing them with someone you enjoy being with.  The story states, "Each morning, while the dew was still on the grass, Antonia went with me up to the garden to get early vegetables for dinner."  Antonia went with Jim, even when she didn't have to.  Antonia enjoyed the outdoors.  She even said to Jim, "Oh, better to work out-of-doors than in a house!"  Then she goes on about how she doesn't care if Jim's grandmother says that it would make her like a man and that she would like to be a man.  With her telling this to Jim, it shows that she can open up to him and tell him anything and know that he won't judge her.  A close friendship.  Another example of their close friendship is when Jim asks Antonia when they were on the roof, "Why aren't you always nice like this, Tony?"

Then Antonia answers, "How nice?"

"Why, just like this; like yourself.  Why do you all the time try to be like Ambrusch?" 

This little conversation shows a lot about their friendship.  It shows that they listen to what the other person has to say and doesn't get offended by it.  Also that Jim knows that Antonia wasn't going to get offended and get all mad and angry about it.  That he knows he can ask her something without all the drama.  If someone was to ask someone else that question and wasn't really their friend, then they probably would have thrown a fit and there probably would have been a lot of drama. 

     On the other hand, in the story, "Once Around Manhattan," the friendship between Gina and Soo-Hyung is a close one, but a close friendship in different ways compared to Jim and Antonia's friendship.  In the story, Gina and Soo-Hyung are the only two girls in the Challenge Club.  They were in a canoe together and had to paddle around Manhattan Island.  On their journey, they talked almost the whole time and you could tell that they were close friends.  In the story, it says, "There was no need to shout to each other to share their thoughts about the serene beauty."  With this sentence, you can really tell that they are close friends.  This is because, the sentence is saying that they are so close and know all about each other that they don't need to speak to know what the other was thinking when looking at the serene beauty.  In the story, while the two girls were paddling, the river began to reverse with the incoming tide and made it harder to paddle.  With their gaze fixed on the Statue of Liberty, together, they were able to get to the shore.  When you have a close friend, you  are able to ask or tell them anything.  That's what Gina did in the story.  She asked Soo-Hyung..."Does she have a name?  The Statue of Liberty lady?  Because if it weren't for her..."

Then Soo-Hyung says, "I know.  I'm gonna have to call her Gina, because she was my only hope back there."

Then Gina says, "Oh, no, her name is Soo-Hyung, steering us to solid ground."

Soo-Hyung replied to that by saying, "Whatever she represents, we absolutely have earned . . ."

"The freedom to have crazy ambitions?" Gina asked.

"How about the freedom to excercise out crazy ambitions?"

"Perfect.  Just don't ask me to move."

This little conversation shows what kind of friendship Gina and Soo-Hyung have.  One that doesn't revolve around one person being better and the other person like her "servant".  It's more like they are both treated the same by each other and no one is the better person between the two.  Also, that they know how to have a funny conversation, even when they were exhausted from what they just did.

     As you can see, these two different friendships are different from each other, but they are both the same too.  They both understand each other and what the other person in the friendship is saying.  Also that they can open up to the other person.  Tell them anything and know that they will understand you.  Which is what a frienship is supposed to be.  To me, these two stories tell a lot about frienship. 

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I am so bored right now. im only typing so it looks like im doing work, so i dont get in trouble. but really, im writing nonsense and im booooooooooooooooored. hey jude is stuck in my head so now im gunna writing down. hey juuuuuuuude. dont make it baaaaaaaaaad. take a sad sooooooooooooooooooooong and make it betterererrer. remember. to let her into ur heeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaart. and u can staaart, to make it. better. yah tht didnt really help much so now its still stuck in my head and im BORED. GAHHHHHHH. hmm what to write what to right. oops. i spelled thth wrong. write right write rright. those are easily mixed up i believe. yup. yuppity yuppity yup. yah. uh huh. ooooooooooooo right. so you know what. laras coach is a singer!!!!!!!!!! and she didnt tell her!!!!!!!!!!!!! and theyre like sisters!!!!!!!!!!! omg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ok so now im really like OD bored. im just gunna bable on and on and on and on and on................... and theyve known each other since she was 5!!!!!!!!! and she KNOWS HER BOYFRIEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! like OD. gahhhhhhhhhhhh i feel stupid now cuz im like having a one person conversationwith a computer. but laras reading it so hey lara!!!!! what up buddy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! babble babble babble GAHHHH i hate being bored. yah kno, my dad always said "only boring people get bored." yah well ya kno wut daddy? IM MUS BEING PRETTY DAMM BORING CUZ IM SO FRICKEN BORED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ok. now tht i got tht my chest. ahahhaha. lol. lmao. hehe. teehee. im laughing now. because ms hill thinks im blogging, which i technically AM. but HAHA on her. cuz this dont make no sense! OK so this catergory is religion. so AMEN.

Practice Test Essay

One of the greatest gifts in life is the gift of friendship.  Friends see you through good times and bad.  They help with various problems and are always there to talk to you.  They help with style, social problems, family, and pretty much everything else you could possibly think of.  A great example of some strong friendships, are Jim and Antonia from My Antonia, and Gina and Soo-Hyung from "Once Around Manhattan."

Jim and Antonia are very good friends.  Antonia basically lives with Jim's family so she always helps out with all of the work around the farm and in the kitchen.  I kind of like to think of Jim and Antonia as being not just friends, but kinda of like brother and sister.  I think they act like it, too.  They work together on the farm, and they talk to each other about really personnel stuff.  Antonia is pretty much a part of Jim's family, too. " 'I like your grandmother, and all things here,' she sighed.  'I wish my papa live to see this summer.  I wish no winter ever come again'...'If I live here, like you, that is different.  Things will be easy for you.  But they will be hard for us.' "

But Gina and Soo-Hyung are good friends, as well.  Gina and Soo-Hyung may not have the same opinions on certain topics, such as whether the Yankees, or the Metz, are a better baseball team.  They also come from very different ethnic backgrounds, so their cultures and customs are different, but that doesn't mean that they cannot be friends.  They do fight sometimes, but I believe that they really are there for each other, and after that boat race in the story, they always will be there for each other.  " 'I know.  I'm going to have to call her Gina,' said Soo-Hyung, rolling her eyes, 'because she was my only hope back there.'  'Oh, no,' said Gina, 'her name is Soo-Hyung, steering us to solid ground.' "

As great as these two friendships may be, they have something very important in common.  The two people, in each situation, helps the other, just to get through the day.  They help each other work on the farm, in My Antonia, and they help each other finish a boating race/trip around the island of Manhattan, in "Once Around Manhattan."  They may not always seem like they plan on always being there for each other, but if you look closely, you can see that in both of the friendship situations, there is strong chemistry.  That kind of strong chemistry between people, in friendships, says it all; it says for itself, that the people on those friendships will always be there for each other.

In conclusion, friends can be you relief, your therapy, your saviors.  They can be your annoyances, your editors, your distractions.  But in the end, you need them, and they need you, (most of the time); and these stories are great examples of how great friendships can work out, to be.

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Practice Test Essay

     Friends. When you hear this word, you may think of one or two special people. Friendship is a bond where you are close to a person that you can relate to, talk to, and just feel comfortable around.  That is the sort of bond that Jim and Atonia have this excerpt of "My Átonia" and the same with Gina and Soo-Hyung have in the short story "Once Around Manhattan". These relationships are similar in many ways.

     In the story My Átonia, Jim and Atonia are friends. Atonia worked for Jim and his grandmother. They say that she is so happy and cheerful all the time, that she even effects the mood of grandmother. Jim tells the time of when one night there was an exciting lightning storm, so the friends climbed up onto the roof of the chicken house to watch the sight. Átonia talks of how she likes her life on their farm. "'I like your grandmother, and all things here,' she sighed." She shows here that she enjoys being there, and being with her good friend, Jim. Later on the roof, Jim says to Átonia, " '...Why aren't you always nice like this, Tony?' 'How nice?' 'Why, just like this; yourself.' " There, Jim says he likes how Átonia is when she is herself.

     Gina and Soo-Hyung set sail on a canoe trip around Manhattan island in the story Once Around Manhattan. They were the only girls on the Challenge Club, so they were extra challenged. But they were ready. During the middle of the voyage, the friends began to fall far behind the rest of the boys in the class, and were struggling to keep up. They were uncertain if they would ever seen the end of this river. As soon the Statue of Liberty came into view, the waters began to become fierce. But with their gaze fixed on the Lady of Liberty, the girls finally triumphed the waters and collapsed on the shore. There, the girls stated that if it weren't for the Statue, the girls would not have made it. "'Does she have a name? The Statue of Liberty lady?... I'm going to have to name her Gina," says Soo-Hyung...because she was my only hope getting back here.' 'Oh, no,' said Gina. 'her name is Soo-Hyung, steering us to solid ground.' " This is one perfect example of friendship. Here is the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of power, justice, and freedom. And there are the friends, saying that she should be named after them. Does that show friendship or what? I think it does!

     These two strong friendship are similar in a few ways. Both are obviously close, and trust each other enough to be themselves around them (even if they act like their older brother when they are around others). When they are together, they can accomplish anything (like paddle a canoe around Manhattan, maybe) and they have fun doing it.

     Friends. It's a mighty strong word. That is the way Jim and Átonia feel towards each other in My Átonia, and the same with Gina and Soo-Hyung in Once Around Manhattan. Their friendships are similar, in ways that they can trust each other to be themselves, and they can achieve any goal together that they set their mind to. And that is what being friends is all about.

Practice Test Essay

    Friends are the closest bond you can make next to family.  They're there for you when you need them and you'll be there for them when they need you.  In the two stories I read, Antonia and Once areound Manhattan, there are two friends and they each have a different and yet similar relationship together.

    In Antonia, Jim and Antonia are on Jim's family farm and Antonia's father died, she went to work on the farm as well.  The storie's in Jim's point on view as he described his memories with Antonia.  Antonia was a more of a tom boyish person as shown when it says "Grandmother made her wear a sunbonnet, but as soon as we reached the garden she threw it on the grass and let her hair fly in the breeze."  Later on there's a part of the story where Antonia and Jim are on the roof talking.  " 'I like your grandmother, and all things here,' she sighed.  'I wish my papa live to see this summer.  I wish no winter ever come again.'  'It will be summer a long while yet,' i reassured her. 'Why aren't you always nice like this, Tony?' 'how nice?' 'why, just like this; like yourself.  Why do you all the time try to like ambrusch?' " this section of the story reveals that Antonia is a little hard on the outside but when she's in private company she can be nice and act normal.  It's sort of a closed up relationship that's still forming.  But Jim got to see part of the real her and that was nice.

    In the other story, Once Around Manhattan, the two only girls on the Challenge club are in the same canoe for their club's journey to take a lap around Manhattan Island.  The two girls' names are Gina and Soo-Hyung.  They loved how they had an extra challenge of being the only girls in the club.  So when they started out they were going at a good pace and they were getting along pretty well. "After a while, Gina stopped paddling just to look, and Soo-Hyung did the same.  There was no need to shout to each other to share their thoughts about the serene beauty."  they were both similar.  Gina was a gymnast and Soo-Hyung was a swimmer.  They were both athletic capable women.  But when Gina saw that there was a landmark of when she was little and had played on a bridge.  She went off to remerse in the memories while Soo-Hyung stayed with the boat.  But as the minutes when by, the other canoes got smaller and smaller and Soo-Hyung started to get anxious to get back to paddling so they wouldn't get stuck in the current when it went the opposite way.  That showed friendship and trust since Soo-Hyung could've rowed off without Gina.  But she waited for Gina to come back.  They ended up stuck in the current.  "but just as the Statue of Liberty came into view, the river stopped flowing downstream and began to reverse with the incoming tide. . . What followed was an excruciating hour of backbreaking work, with the Statue of Librety fixed in their gaze," they both worked together to take action and finish their journey.  Soo-Hyung didn't push Gina to keep moving and she kept her worryment to herself as her friend was off down memory lane.

    With these two stories fresh in your memories, I hope you can make the relation between these two friends.  Their friendships are both a little concealed in a way but they trust each other and that's what matters.  Oh man now I feel like I'm going to start crying from the beauty of it!  Friends are the strongest bonds you can make next to family.  Make the best of them.

Social Studies DBQ

    The curiosity of the American Citizens in they're journey of westward expansion, was sparked by their interests in many investments and rumors of rich land, garunteed wealth, and gold.
    After the Louisiana Territory was added to the US and doubled its size in 1803 as shown in document 2, loads of Americans began to become interested in what the government was advertising.  In document there's an add from the Burlington & Missouri River R. R. Co., they were selling loans with only a 6 cent interest.  They were also selling tickets to explore the land.  This way, settlers could view the land and buy it at a cheap easy price.  A double deal.  Plus, many settlers needed a deal like that since a lot of the people who moved west were poor people who were moving to hopefully start a new life, a more successful one.  In other words, these bargains helped them in their journeys to a new life.
    The invention of railroads have helped westward expansion transportation wise.  In document 5, the little girl said that they were 6 months into their wagon trip to the west.  This document shows how long travel by wagon was.  Railroads moved larger loads faster and easier.  Making traveling easier by the tons.
    Even before the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, the Native Americans were being pushed farther and farther west from loosing wars, and their fear of the United State's growing nation.  But since settlers started moving west of the Mississippi River, the Native American Population decreased in size quickly in a shorter amount of time.  Due to the settlers kicking them off their land. Between 1805 and 1900, as document 1 has shown, there's a chart that shows the increase of the American population and the decrease of the Native American population.  It only shows how the idea of Manifest Destiny, or the idea that the US has the right and duty to spread their culture and ideas all the way across the nation to till they reach the Pacific Ocean, is effecting the Native Americans.  They're dying! (Not to be mellow dramatic or anything)  Also in document 6, there's an add for the land that was claimed from the "Indians" which shows that we're stripping them of all they're worth.  We're basically bullying them out of their lunch money, house, property, and basically their clothes as well.  Sheesh that's a lot of damage don't you think?
    Either way, West ward expansion is something that was growing rapidly.  Settlers were gaining property to the west like flies hurrying to a freshly displayed piece of toast with honey.  they were taking the bait and no one could stop it.

A Brotherly Bond

     The Costellos are almost the definition of brothers. They're nice, they look up to and out for each other. Yes they probably get at each other's necks every once in a while, but not often enough to stop them from being close and friendly.

     While on the other hand the Fisher brothers are far from what you call a healthy relationship. To put it plainly, they hate each other. They will go out of their waty to bother, annoy, or demean the other. It's actually sad some of the things that go on between them.

     "Erik was sitting... He waved casually to mom. He ignored me." These poor boys are cruel. Paul doesn't even seem to think he would miss Erik if he died the next day. "I would feel relieved. I would feel safer. But I would feel sorry, too. Erik is a part of the Eclipse story... I don't want Erik to die and take his part of the story with him." They don't care about eachother. "I've always been afraid of Erik." It's horrible! They definatly hate one another. You would think they could pick up a thing or two from the Costello's.

     "Nah, I'll catch a ride from Mike." "His little brother freaked out. He went crazy... He wouldn't get out of the way." Those are a few expressions of love the Costello's display for each other.  Love is something the Fishers just might never know.

Economic Differences Should Not Affect Relationships

On the first day of kindergarten, most of us automatically became friends with the first person that gave us a smile.  Nothing else mattered between use and that person, because that person had just done one of the nicest gestures that we knew 0f at that point, during our innocent, premature lives.  It didn't matter whether they were Jewish and French or Christian and Mexican, or whether they were born into an rich, poor or working class family.

We didn't then, but today, we sometimes do use these things to decide on our relationships and thoughts on/about others.  Which brings me to my point.  To say that "Economic differences between friends cause problems; people from different economic backgrounds cannot be friends," would be one person's opinion, (which I happen to strongly disagree with).But in my eyes, "Economic differences between friends MAY cause problems, but people from different economic backgrounds CAN STILL be friends," is a MUCH BETTER quote.  I mean, after all, it is a free country, according to the Constitution, and we are allowed to be friends with anyone, so why would economic differences matter?  Well in my opinion, they don't.