By the river, we fed the rusted barrel with the things we were finished carrying. Lanterns drifted like small moons over the current, each one a small floating promise to come back different. I fed the sketches to the metal mouth and watched them go light as feathered soot, edges curling into question marks. Grandmother's tale of a bird reborn from ash nested in my pocket all these years, a warm stone I forgot I was holding. People say you must lose everything to begin again, as if the world is the one that decides. The tale of the bird that returns from ash was only a map; tonight I choose the road. I am not waiting for a sign; I am making one, tracing it in smoke I can finally breathe. On the bank, my friends sang, and the dark answered with a wide, listening river. When the barrel sighed, I felt the room I had cleared inside me, not empty but ready.

Claim: The author draws on and transforms the phoenix myth to depict creative renewal as a deliberate choice rather than a fate.

Which quotation from the excerpt best supports the claim?

Cities across the region recorded the hottest summer in twenty years, prompting a reassessment of cooling strategies. In a three-year pilot across twelve blocks, midday surface temperatures dropped 1.8 to 3.1 degrees Celsius where tree canopy increased by at least ten percent, and peak electricity demand fell 4.6 percent on comparable heat days. Residents reported feeling more comfortable on sidewalks shaded by young trees. Shade also benefits urban biodiversity, offering habitat to birds and insects, but the primary purpose of the initiative is heat relief. The pilot's cost per planted tree averaged two hundred dollars, excluding maintenance, and maintenance partnerships are being negotiated. Based on these results, the city models a 3–7 percent reduction in peak load if canopy expands by 15 percent in heat-vulnerable zones, an investment projected to pay for itself within eight years through energy savings. While additional variables influence demand, the evidence suggests that strategically planted trees reduce surface heat and lower electricity use during summer peaks.

Claim: The author concludes that increasing urban tree canopy can reduce summer electricity demand citywide.

Which evidence from the brief best supports the claim?

I used to think listening was a trait you either had or didn't, like being tall. Coaching debate changed that belief, but not because of one dramatic round. In a randomized, semester-long trial with 214 students, those coached in paraphrasing improved their comprehension scores by 18 percent over controls. A senior told me, 'I thought I was born a bad listener, but week by week I could feel the skill growing.' I still remember the first time a room went quiet after I asked a better follow-up; it wasn't my wit, it was my patience. Listening is a muscle; if you never use it, it atrophies. We built routines: summarize the claim, ask a clarifying question, then check for understanding. By November, teams who practiced these steps not only won more rounds but reported fewer misunderstandings outside tournaments. No one becomes fluent overnight, yet the numbers, and the changed mornings in our classroom, taught me that attention can be trained.

Claim: The author's assertion that listening is a learnable skill is supported primarily through empirical evidence rather than personal anecdote.

Which quotation from the excerpt best supports the claim?

The storm began as a rumor in the leaves and then spoke louder. Lightning stitched the sky over the pasture, and for a moment the fence glowed. I told myself I needed sleep, but the house bristled with wakefulness, floorboards ticking like a scold. Wind pressed its palms against the windows as if it could find the latch I hid. Each peal of thunder sounded like a name I wouldn't say, and my guilt answered, bright and late. I set a glass under the leak in the kitchen and listened to its thin applause. By morning the storm would pass, leaving the grass combed and the ditch brimming, and maybe I would finally call. But in that hour, the dark rehearsed everything I had not said, and the rain did not wash it away; it tapped, and tapped, and waited for me to open.

Claim: In this passage, the storm functions as a pathetic fallacy, mirroring the narrator's guilt rather than serving as mere backdrop.

Which line from the passage best supports the claim?

On launch day Theo taped feathers of polymer and hope to his shoulders before dawn. Daedalus, all patents and patience, sketched angles on napkins at lunch, reminding him to log every trial. Theo had been told the atrium was safe; the vents barely whispered. He rose on the warm updraft of a new quarter's targets; when the glue softened, the executives clapped, calling it iteration, as he flailed through the atrium light. A smear of adhesive traced the arc of his fall. After, a custodian swept the white flecks of glue into a paper cup.

In interview blurbs, the company called the demo a 'proof of concept,' a horizon. Theo read the word failure only in the comment section, where interns cautioned one another to print résumés on heavier paper. He dreamed of fountains, and of hands, and of alarms that went off too late.

Claim: The author draws on and transforms the Icarus myth to critique modern corporate ambition.

Which quotation from the passage best supports the claim?

Urban congestion pricing charges drivers a fee to enter busy zones during peak hours, aiming to reduce traffic and fund transit. Opponents argue the policy punishes commuters without offering alternatives; supporters counter that the evidence from multiple cities shows measurable benefits. In three case studies with similar downtown grids, weekday vehicle entries dropped 15–20% within the first year, while average bus speeds in the zone improved 10–15%. The same programs generated between $800 million and $1.2 billion annually, revenue earmarked for bus lanes and signal priority that further increased reliability. Charging gantries, connected to license-plate readers, operated with 98% accuracy in low light and rain, minimizing billing errors. Surveys captured frustration from some drivers who felt 'taxed for trying to work,' yet ridership rose most on routes serving neighborhoods with frequent service upgrades. The question is not whether congestion pricing can change behavior, but whether leaders will allocate proceeds equitably.

Claim: The author's argument that congestion pricing reduces traffic while funding better transit is supported by relevant and sufficient evidence.

Which evidence from the passage best supports the claim?

I used to shout at marches because noise felt like proof that we existed. But the winter after the sirens, my voice thinned. In crowded rooms, my words scattered like salt. On my grandmother's porch, I learned to count the pauses between train horns; the distance held a kind of grammar. At the hearing, I stood with a cardboard sign and said nothing. The council measured harm in decibels; they had no unit for listening. People mistook our quiet for fatigue, but we were arranging space, making the officials fill it. Silence is not an absence; it is a shape I can choose, the held breath that makes the next word land. When the chair finally asked what we wanted, even his question sounded loud against the hush we had built together. Later, reporters called it 'muted.' We called it practice.

Claim: The author argues that silence is an intentional, communicative act rather than a retreat.

Which quotation from the passage best supports the claim?

A multi-district study examined the effect of delaying high school start times by 45–60 minutes. Researchers tracked 28,000 students across five suburban and two urban systems for three years, comparing cohorts before and after the shift. Self-reported sleep duration increased by an average of 43 minutes on school nights, and the proportion of teens meeting recommended sleep thresholds rose by 22 percentage points. Importantly, academic outcomes shifted alongside sleep. Mean course grades increased by 0.1–0.2 points on a 4-point scale, first-period test scores improved significantly, and chronic absenteeism declined by 12%. Disciplinary referrals fell modestly, and car crash rates among drivers aged 16–18 decreased in districts that collected traffic data. Although transportation budgets rose in year one due to bus route reconfiguration, costs stabilized by year two. Schools with higher baseline income maintained higher GPAs regardless of start time, but the relative gains associated with delay were similar across income groups.

Claim: The evidence indicates that later start times improve academic performance, not just sleep duration.

Which evidence from the passage best supports the claim?