This space contains reference text beginning next to Question 13.

To answer Questions 13-18, please read the following passage from Chapter 1 of Haruki Murakami’s After Dark. Choose the best responses to the prompts next to the passage. There is one and only one correct answer to each prompt.

Chapter 1, page 3
“Through the eyes of a high-flying night bird, we take in the scene from midair. In our broad sweep, the city looks like a single gigantic creature—or more like a single collective entity created by many intertwining organisms. Countless arteries stretch to the ends of its elusive body, circulating a continuous supply of fresh blood cells, sending out new data and collecting the old, sending out new consumables and collecting the old, sending out new contradictions and collecting the old. To the rhythm of its pulsing, all parts of the body flicker and flare up and squirm. Midnight is approaching, and while the peak of activity has passed, the basal metabolism that maintains life continues undiminished, producing the basso continuo of the city's moan, a monotonous sound that neither rises nor falls but is pregnant with foreboding.”
 

To answer Questions 19-24, please read the following passage from Chapter 1 of Haruki Murakami’s After Dark. Choose the best responses to the prompts next to the passage. There is one and only one correct answer to each prompt.

Chapter 1, Pages 21-22
"So the three brothers found three boulders on the shore just as the god had said they would. And they started pushing them along as the god told them to. Now these were huge, heavy boulders, so rolling them was hard, and
pushing them up an incline took an enormous effort. The youngest brother quit first. He said, 'Brothers, this place is good enough for me. It's close to the shore, and I can catch fish. It has everything I need to go on living. I don't mind if I can't see that much of the world from here.' His two elder brothers pressed on, but when they were midway up the mountain, the second brother quit. He said, 'Brother, this place is good enough for me. There is plenty of fruit here. It has everything I need to go on living. I don't mind if I can't see that much of the world from here.' The eldest brother continued walking up the mountain. The trail grew increasingly narrow and steep, but he did not quit. He had great powers of perseverance, and he wanted to see as much of the world as he possibly could, so he kept rolling the boulder with all his might. He went on for months, hardly eating or drinking, until he had rolled the boulder to the very peak of the high mountain. There he stopped and surveyed the world. Now he could see more of the world than anyone. This was the place he would live—where no grass grew, where no birds flew. For water, he could only lick the ice and frost. For food, he could only gnaw on moss. But he had no regrets, because now he could look out over the whole world. And so, even today, his great, round boulder is perched on the peak of that mountain on an island in Hawaii. That's how the story goes."

To answer Questions 25-27, please read the following passage from enotes.com regarding the motifs and themes of Haruki Murakami’s After Dark. Choose the best responses to the prompts that follow. There is one and only one correct answer to each prompt.

“Darkness, however, also represents the subconscious. The subconscious is the realm of dreams, which usually occur at night in the darkness. The model of dreams is found in the character of Eri, who sleeps her life away. In her sleep, she moves from the real to the unreal as her body passes from her bedroom through the walls of her television into a different realm. She wakes up on the other side, unaware of where she is. All she knows is that she is not where she should be. She is not where she was when she fell asleep. None of the windows or doors will open. So she goes back to sleep, hoping that all her problems will be solved the next time she wakes up. Eri wakes in her dreams and sleeps in her wake-reality, a mix-up for which no one can find a solution.”
"After Dark - Themes" eNotes Publishing Ed. Scott Locklear. eNotes.com, Inc. eNotes.com 30 Dec, 2016 <http://www.enotes.com/topics/after-dark-murakami/themes#themes-themes>

To answer Questions 30-32, please read "India; High-Tech and Thirsty."

India: High-Tech and Thirsty
by Alice Andre-Clarke


When an American computer scientist wanted to develop the best handwriting recognition software in the world, he packed his bags for Bangalore, known as the Silicon Valley of India. India’s large pool of highly skilled scientists will earn the country about $100 billion in technology revenue this year.

Yet all of India’s science and management talent has been unable to bring its citizens one of the basic comforts of modern life: a steady supply of running water. Fewer than half of Indian households have tap water. Tens of millions don’t have clean drinking water.

No major city in India delivers water 24 hours a day to all its customers. While the fortunate ones buy pumps and storage tanks to capture as much water as possible, those less fortunate rely on tanker trucks to deliver the precious resource.

Those dependent on the trucks must leave school or work to meet them. Because parents place importance on boys’ education, that someone is often a preteen girl. Armed with paint cans and cooking pots, residents toss a hose—not always clean —into the tanker. Kids transport 50- to 100-pound containers on bicycles, or walk with cans balanced on their heads.

In most rural villages, where there is an absence of pipes and tanker trucks, girls might walk a few miles twice a day to a neighboring village’s well. After hoisting heavy buckets from 20 feet below ground level, they then carry the full containers home.

Finding safe water is even more difficult. Rivers are blackened by untreated sewage and fertilizers from farms’ run offs. Clothing factories in the city of Tirupur dump dyed wastewater into the local reservoir.

India can’t deliver water 24/7 because its pipes are often laced with tiny cracks. If forced to hold water pressure all day every day, water would pour from those growing fissures, losing as much as half of the water. While replacing pipes would save water in the long run, doing so would require money that water authorities don’t have.

More than anywhere else, India’s water is lost on its farms. In the 1960s, a drought drastically reduced the country’s grain production. To prevent mass starvation, the government began offering free electricity to farmers to use to dig wells and pump up groundwater. The number of wells rose from 800,000 in 1975 to 22 million in 2000. While the farmers’ hard work held back the famine, their success came at an alarming cost.

Finding a better way to manage India’s water is urgent for two reasons. First, India’s population is growing. Fifty years ago, India’s population was under 500 million, but by 2040, the number will have passed 1.5 billion.

Second, India is experiencing climate change. The mountain glaciers that feed India’s major rivers are rapidly melting away. “Rising temperatures mean that water will evaporate more quickly from rivers, reservoirs, and soil”, explains Veena Srinivasan, a senior research affiliate at the Pacific Institute’s International Communities and Water Initiative.

Experts have many good ideas for making the water supply safe and accessible. Srinivasan argues that rates should be raised, and meters should measure water use in wealthy homes. If people pay for the water they use, they will make wiser choices. Further, Rajendra K. Pachauri, director of New Delhi’s The Energy and Resources Institute, has called for the government to begin charging farmers more for electricity.

Experts want to educate people on how to protect the water supply. While Srinivasan favors programs to teach how to use less water at home, Sanmugam Prathapar of Delhi’s International Water Institute believes families should learn to boil and filter water to make it safe to drink. Farmers can be taught irrigation methods to plant grains that require less water.

Water storage must improve. Srinivasan says that India should expand reservoirs so it can capture heavy rainfalls to be used during droughts.

Fourth, polluters must act more responsibly. Leading conservationist Rajendra Singh has urged that factories be required to treat wastewater so that it’s clean before released into the water supply. He also believes in tougher penalties for polluters.

The World Health Organization estimates that over 700,000 Indians a year die because of poor water and sanitation. Unfortunately, the shortage of clean water is just one crisis facing India. Hundreds of millions of people can’t read or write, and one one-third have no electricity. Many in India are hoping that the fast-growing technology industry will bring in enough money so that people won’t have to choose which problem to solve.