SD3

Throughout WW1 new [|technology] was created and improved; machines became more efficient, new ideas were put to use on the battlefield, and -through machines- a single man had the ability to kill hundreds of enemies. This new technology lead to over 8,000,000 deaths and almost 20,000,000 injuries, as well as the millions of men whose lives where destroyed by the war. Some examples of new technology that was created during WW1 was: [|Machine Guns], [|Tanks], Howitzers, [|Poison Gas] and U-Boats. Although the initial thought behind new technologies was that it would help to bring the war to a close, it actually ended up prolonging the war; and in many ways created a race for new technology. One of the first technologies to be improved for the war was the machine gun. At the start of the war a single machine gun required a crew of four to six men to operate it; the maximum number of rounds per minute was 400-600 small calibre rounds. The first machine guns would overheat quickly and often get jammed, as a result most machine guns would have to be fired in short bursts, which in some situations meant they were worthless. Additionally these guns were incredibly heavy often weighing in at over 62 kg, this meant that they could only be used for defense, and that moving them around the battlefield proved to be a very troublesome process. For these reasons many countries decided that the machine gun was a lost cause and wasn't worth investing time into; other countries however saw this as the killing machine of the future. By the end of the war machine guns weighed as little as 9 kg and could fire up to 1200 rounds per minute. While not all countries realized the potential of the machine gun, many countries realized they were in need of a way to disable the machine gun. These countries discovered that they needed something mobile and that was able to withstand large amounts of machine gun fire; this technology was the tank. The tank was another new technology which proved useful in the war, it was not as popular but even stronger then the machine gun. Originally the tank started off as a slow, inefficient, low range, generally incapable machine and many thought that the tank had no future on the battlefield, or anywhere in the world for that matter. However as the war progressed so did the abilities of the tank; it was quickly discovered that the tank had the ability to go over no mans land with no problem. The tank had the ability to withstand gun fire and roll through barbed-wire with little problem. An added bonus was that the tank would help to save many horses; before the tank armored cars were used which had no off-road capability, and therefore, were useless on the battlefield. However tanks were costly to manufacture and run and could sometimes be unreliable, Germany did not build its tanks during the first world war as they found that taking the tanks on the battlefield was a cheaper, easier process. In order to take over the tanks the Germans used a large gun called a Howitzer. After the tanks had been commandeered, they would be taken back to a plant were they were fixed up and sent back onto the battlefields, as a result the Germans spent very little on tanks and still had the destructive power at their hands. The Howitzer was a large gun that was capable of disabling tanks as well as fire into trenches; for these reasons the Germans felt that the Howitzer was the weapon to invest in. The Germans were starting to develop bigger and larger Howitzers that were capable of of taking down forts. On September 15th, 1914, a newspaper article with the title "Germans used 11 inch howitzer to take great fortresses at Leige and Namur."(3) This put fear into many citizens as both of these forts seemed to be invincible; something that the Germans couldn't, wouldn't take due to the brute strength of these forts. Soon the 11 inch howitzers that were used to bring down forts were dwarfed by Germany's new 16 inch howitzer which was bigger and stronger then any Howitzer in the world. "A [|16-inch] howitzer is about 37 feet long and weighs about 100 tons"(3). The biggest problem with such a big gun was transporting it, the Germans used a train to carry both the gun and its ammo; the ammo for the 16-inch howitzer was a huge problem, each projectile weighed 2,400 pounds and was three times the height of a man. Once the Howitzer was with in 20 miles of its target it would take up to three hours to get set up and then would fire upon its target, assuming its target was still there, if the target was hit it stood no chance of surviving; however this came at a price. It cost the Germans almost $1 million to fire the 16 inch Howitzer just once. The technology that was used in World War 1, while it might of saved some lives, did more bad then good. Although the point of the technology was to shorten the war; World War 1 ended up being four years long and the death toll rose to numbers that had never been seen before and are still considered to be large numbers today. The higher death toll fueled want for the latest technology, this technology then killed more people, and the want for technology became a never ending circle; Countries worked harder and faster to make new developments with new weapons. In World War 1 more rules were broken and this resulted in more deaths; when the Germans started sinking all the ships they saw with their U-Boats this created an outrage in the US and lead to America becoming involved in the war. It is important to remember that technology used in World War 1 wasn't only physical but also mental; new tactics were used such as trench warfare and the invention for boats to travel in groups to avoid U-Boat attacks. World War 1 changed the meaning of the word war to make it something familiar to the War we know today although we rarely hear about World War 1 anymore the new inventions and tactics they were made and thought of back then are still around today and while in the short run it appeared that the technology used in World War 1 only caused the deaths of millions of men it is obvious today that it did more then that.

Memories act as both a help and a hinderance to the success of someone. Many people advise you to learn from the past and apply those memories so that you can effectively succeed by avoiding repeating your past mistakes. On the other hand, people who get too caught up with the past are unable to move on to the future.

Elie Wiesel's memoir Night perfectly exemplifies the double nature of memories. Wiesel, a Jewish man, suffered heavily throughout the Holocaust and Night is rife with horrific descriptions of his experience. These memories help to spread the view of what life was like. Through recounting these memories, Wiesel is able to educate world readers about the atrocities committed in hopes that the same blatant violations of human rights are never repeated again. Through reliving the Holocaust through his writing, Wiesel was inspired to become proactive in the battle for civil rights. Some would point to his peaceful actions and the sales of his book and label him a success.

Despite the importance of recounting such memories, Wiesel acknowledges the damage that memories can also cause. Following his liberation from the Auschwitz concentration camp, Wiesel was a bitter, jaded man. He could not even write Night until several years later. The end of the novel describes Wiesel's gradual but absolute loss of faith throughout the experience. His past experiences haunted him for several years, rendering him passive. It was not until he set aside his past that he could even focus on the future. Had he remained so consumed with the pain and damage caused in the past, he may never have achieved the success that he has attained.

Overall, Wiesel's experiences exemplify the importance of the past as a guide. Wiesel's past experiences helped to guide him in later life, but it was not until he pushed them aside that he could move on. To me this means that you should rely on your past without letting it control you. Allow your past to act as a guide, while making sure that you are also living in the present and looking to the future.

This essay deserves a score of 4, it is well written with excellent grammar, however it is short in length and goes off topic slightly. The author could give more details in the Essay, as it is some vague.

Benito Mussolini rose to power through writing about political events going on during the war, having been on the front lines for over nine months his writing was very insightful. He became the editor in chief of the news paper Il Popolo d'Italia, after serving nine months. Later in his life his early political influences from his father led him to start expressing his belief in reforming Italy. After being released from the war Mussolini felt that Italy needed a man who would be "ruthless and energetic enough to make a clean sweep" in order to help revive Italy( The Rise of Benito Mussolini, 13). One of the reason’s that Mussolini was brought to power was because he brought a new set of beliefs to the table, this was often called “[|The third way]”( Mussolini and Italian Fascism, 16). Soon Mussolini had an increasing large group of followers as many believed that he had the ability to reform the government as well as Italy itself, in other words he was a revolutionist who was also a considered a traditionalist. (Fascist Modernization in Italy: Traditional or Revolutionary, 1) In 1922 between October 27th and 29th Mussolini led a coup de ta which allowed the National Fascist Party to come to power. On October 28th 1922 Mussolini officially came to power, however he had many things to accomplish as the Prime Minister of Italy. He hoped that one day Italy would be run by a totalitarian government with him as the leader. Mussolini found himself surprisingly well liked by his people, however in order to remain control he found himself building a continually stronger [|dictatorship].( Mass Dictatorship and Consensus-Building, 7) Mussolini wanted to increase the size of his “Italian Empire” and he set his sights on the weak Ethiopia, knowing that his forces were far superior; as a result by May of 1936 Ethiopia was part of the new Italian Empire. (A History of Italy in Brief, 9) In April 1939 Mussolini received word that Hitler had plans to invade Checkoslovakia, with this knowledge Mussolini decided to invade Albania. Mussolini gave the order to start the invasion and within five days Mussolini had conquered Albania. Later in the war when Hitler was planning his invasion on Poland, Mussolini saw an opportunity to invade Yugoslavia, however he resisted with the knowledge that a full out war could be a disaster for Italy. Italy remained neutral until June 10th, 1940 when they declared war on Britain and France. While there were many unsuccessful assassination attempts on Mussolini’s life, he was successfully captured and executed while trying to leave Spain. While it is still not official it is believed that Benito Mussolini was shot twice in the chest on April 18th 1945, he was in great pain and [|died] later that day.

Works Cited

Linas, Eriksonas. H Soz U Cult. 18 Mar. 2005. 5 Feb. 2009 .

MacDonald, Hamish. Mussolini and Italian Fascism. 5 Feb. 2009 .

Sarti, Roland. Facist Modernization In Italy. 1029. Rpt. in The American Historical Review. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 5 Feb. 2009 .

You Will have 30 minutes to complete the writing task. Take a Few Minutes to think about the task and to plan what you want to say before you begin to write. You may use the prewriting/planning space to plan your text, but your prewriting will not be scored. **Only your writing on the lined pages of your answer sheet will be scored.** Do your best to make your writing clear and well organized. Keep your purpose in mind as your write and use your checklist. You must use a No. 2 pencil. You may either print or write your final copy. You may //not// use a dictonary or any other reference materials during the test. However, you may use the Writer's Checklist. If you finish before the time is called, review what you have written using the Writer's Checklist to read critically and improve what you have written. Part 1
 * Directions:** Today you are going to take part of the High School Proficiency Assessment for Language Arts Literacy. The assessment contains different types of text and different activities. In the first part of the test, you will look at a picture and then complete a writing task. In this activity, you have an opportunity to demonstrate how well you can organize and express your ideas in written text. Refer to the Writer's Checklist of important points to remember as you write. Educators who read your writing will consider these important points when they read and score your writing.

Part 2 You Will have 50 minutes for this part of the test**.**
 * Directions:** In this part of the test, you will read a narrative passage and then respond to the multiple-choice and open-ended questions that follow it. You may look back at the passage and make notes in the margin if you like, but you must record your answers on your answer sheet.

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.....Take Monopoly as an example. To begin with it’s good fun but, like the banking and property system on which it is based, there is a flaw. It never ends. You go bankrupt so you borrow money from your mum who has loads. Then you go bankrupt again. So you borrow more money from the bank. And then, when there is no more money left in the box, you write out an IOU and keep on borrowing by which time it is Thursday, everyone is bankrupt and you have realised that unchecked capitalism doesn’t work whether it comes in a stock market or in a box. That’s if you’re lucky. If you’re not, there will be a “bad loser” around the table who will land on your hotel in Park Avenue and in a hysterical rage will burst into tears and throw the board, his dog, your iron and all your dad’s houses into the fire.======

In theory Scrabble is much better and yet it, too, is flawed. Well, it is for me because I always end up with seven vowels. So while my opponent is writing “underpass” across two triple word scores and claiming it’s a game of skill, I’m getting five for “eerie”. Again. And they are looking at me as though I might be a simpleton.

Board games, then, do not bring a family closer together. They rip out its heart in a seething cauldron of rage, hysteria, accusations and hate. And I fear they have a similar effect on world peace.

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To understand this new and interesting theory, we need to look at the world since Pong. This was the first commercially available video game; it featured two bats, a square ball and lots of irritating noises, it came along in 1972 and since then the western world has, for the most part, been at peace. We can therefore conclude that Pong and other games of its ilk ended the cold war because, for the first time in history, leaders had something better to do than rush about threatening to bash one another’s heads in.======

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I realise, of course, that this doesn’t apply to Tony Blair or George W Bush but that’s because they were too busy reading the Bible to play Space Invaders. I, on the other hand, played a lot of Space Invaders and I’ve never wanted to invade anywhere.======

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When we look at the world’s trouble spots today – the Gaza Strip, Somalia, Sri Lanka and so on – we find large chunks of the population which have no possibility of playing Grand Theft Auto. This means they are bored. They could play Dover Patrol or Mousetrap but choose instead to hold up oil tankers or cut off their neighbour’s arms.======

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The board game was invented about 5,000 years ago and it didn’t quench anyone’s thirst for activity. People continued to invent stupid new religions and have wars because they knew that getting an axe in a face was better, by miles, than a game of Clue. Look at Hitler. He could have played Risk but because it can only ever be won by the person charged with the task of conquering Australia and North America, he decided to make up his own rules and play them out for real. Would he have done so if he’d been given a PlayStation and a copy of Call of Duty? I seriously doubt it.======

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The fact is this. Since science harnessed the electron and turned it into a Cylon or a Nazi paratrooper with a realistic machine pistol, the world has unquestionably been a better place.And so, too, is life for the family.======


 * Based on this article what argument could be made against this position?
 * Provide at least two supporting details that would help explain your view against the student.

There is fighting going on right now in regions in the world (such as the Gaza strip, Somalia, and Sri Lanka) where Grand Theft Auto or games of similar violence aren’t even available to purchase. Also, back in the middle ages and in ancient times board games that were played in the time period never actually prevented wars or asserted them. According to the author of this article the wars would have happened regardless of the availability of games.

12. Recently there have been debates about banning video games that or too violent or inappropriate.


 * What is your view on the idea of banning video games?
 * Give at least two supporting ideas for or against the ban of video games.

Banning video games is a clear violation of the first amendment, so that is why I think it is a terrible idea. Video games don’t give people ideas; the ideas being put down on digital media are product of the thoughts and imagination of many people. They offer a chance to escape the real world troubles and violence and may even prevent people from committing an act of war. Like the author mentioned, even though these games aren’t available in fighting regions of the world, they still continue fighting; this proves that video games are not the culprit for fighting, but they are merely a scapegoat for concerned mothers who can’t parent their own children well enough that they need the government create laws against it.

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 * Directions:** In this part of the test, you will read a persuasive passage and then respond to the multiple-choice and open-ended questions that follow it. You may look back at the passage and make notes in the margin if you like, but you must record your answers on your answer sheet. You Will have 50 minutes for this part of the test**.**======

**//From// "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu"**
The afternoon grew so glowering that in the sixth inning the arc lights were turned on--always a wan sight in the daytime, like the burning headlights of a funeral procession. Aided by the gloom, Fisher was slicing through the Sox rookies, and Williams did not come to bat in the seventh. He was second up in the eighth. This was almost certainly his last time to come to the plate in Fenway Park, and instead of merely cheering, as we had at his three previous appearances, we stood, all of us, and applauded. I had never before heard pure applause in a ballpark. No calling, no whistling, just an ocean of handclaps, minute after minute, burst after burst, crowding and running together in continuous succession like the pushes of surf at the edge of the sand. It was a sombre and considered tumult. There was not a boo in it. It seemed to renew itself out of a shifting set of memories as the Kid, the Marine, the veteran of feuds and failures and injuries, the friend of children, and the enduring old pro evolved down the bright tunnel of twenty-two summers toward this moment. At last, the umpire signalled for Fisher to pitch; with the other players, he had been frozen in position. Only Williams had moved during the ovation, switching his bat impatiently, ignoring everything except his cherished task. Fisher wound up, and the applause sank into a hush. Understand that we were a crowd of rational people. We knew that a home run cannot be produced at will; the right pitch must be perfectly met and luck must ride with the ball. Three innings before, we had seen a brave effort fail. The air was soggy, the season was exhausted. Nevertheless, there will always lurk, around the corner in a pocket of our knowledge of the odds, an indefensible hope, and this was one of the times, which you now and then find in sports, when a density of expectation hangs in the air and plucks an event out of the future. Fisher, after his unsettling wait, was wide with the first pitch. He put the second one over, and Williams swung mightily and missed. The crowd grunted, seeing that classic swing, so long and smooth and quick, exposed. Fisher threw the third time, Williams swung again, and there it was. The ball climbed on a diagonal line into the vast volume of air over center field. From my angle, behind third base, the ball seemed less an object in flight than the tip of a towering, motionless construct, like the Eiffel Tower or the Tappan Zee Bridge. It was in the books while it was still in the sky. Brandt ran back to the deepest corner of the outfield grass, the ball descended beyond his reach and struck in the crotch where the bullpen met the wall, bounced chunkily, and vanished. Like a feather caught in a vortex, Williams ran around the square of bases at the center of our beseeching screaming. He ran as he always ran out home runs--hurriedly, unsmiling, head down, as if our praise were a storm of rain to get out of. He didn’t tip his cap. Though we thumped, wept, and chanted "We want Ted" for minutes after he hid in the dugout, he did not come back. Our noise for some seconds passed beyond excitement into a kind of immense open anguish, a wailing, a cry to be saved. But immortality is nontransferable. The papers said that the other players, and even the umpires on the field, begged him to come out and acknowledge us in some way, but he refused. Gods do not answer letters.
 * by John Updike**

11. The author states "Gods do not answer letters." 12. Some believe that Ted Williams last hit was almost too perfect.
 * Directions for open-ended questions 11 and 12:** Write your response in the space provided on the answer sheet.
 * Why does he refer to Ted Williams as a god?
 * Does the article show Ted Williams as a man who is modest or a man who has no appreciation for his fans?
 * Do you believe that this could have been a setup for one of baseballs greatest stars
 * Using evidence from the story explain why or why not in at least two examples from the story.

The SNCC stands for student nonviolent coordinating committee, which was started in 1960 and only lasted 6 years, until 1966. The SNCC helped coordinate events such as Freedom Rides and Freedom Summer. The SNCC did a lot of work in Mississippi such as organizing cotton workers. On February 1, 1960, a group of black college students from North Carolina A&T University refused to leave a lunch counter at Woolworths in Greensboro, North Carolina where they had been denied service. Quickly there actions were known throughout the south and they inspired other blacks to sit-in.

Hippies & the Counterculture Activity

On January 1967 Hippie culture was made popular in San Francisco by the [|Human Be-In]. Throughout the late 1960's many people were influenced by the Hippie culture. As the number of Hippies in the United States grew so did the things it influenced. Soon clothes, music, television, movies even food took some cues from the culture of hippies. It is interesting to note that the word Hippie developed from the word hip, which was used to describe Jazz performances in the 40's and 50's. The Hippie movement was started by the youth and soon spread to older generations. The Hippy culture peaked in 1968 when %0.2 of the population described themselves as Hippys. In the 1970's the number of Hippies died off, however some hippies can still be found today. In the 1960's Hippies were known as one of the three countercultures. Hippies rejected established institutions, criticized middle class values, opposed nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War, were often vegetarian and eco-friendly, promoted the use of drugs which they felt expanded one's consciousness, and created communities. They made arts, street theatre, folk music, and rock as a part of their lifestyle and as a way of expressing their feelings, their protests and their vision of the world and life. Many Hippies would say that if you listen to the song [|All You Need Is Love] by //The Beatles// that song is an excellent example of the Hippie culture. After many shocking turns hippies waned off simply because there image was started to become disrupted. Many associated drug problems with Hippies and after 18 year old [|Meredith Hunter] was stabbed and killed during a rolling stones performance. After Charles Manson was said to be at the head of the murders of two more victims, many Hippies were tired of being sterotyped as druggies and felt that the cultue they once had was getting out of hand. The Hippie culture has never and likely will never die completely, there will always be people who value the rules and standards that Hippies stood for and stand for today.