A Rose for Emily (for Advanced Levels C1-C2)

A Rose for Emily is one of the best-known short stories by the American writer William Faulkner. First published in 1930, the story has remained an important work of American literature because of its unusual structure, mysterious atmosphere, and powerful exploration of memory, isolation, death, and resistance to change.

The story takes place in the fictional town of Jefferson in the American South. At its center is Miss Emily Grierson, a woman from an old and once-respected family. Emily lives in a large, aging house that seems increasingly separated from the changing world around it. While the town moves forward from one generation to another, Emily remains deeply connected to the past.

The story begins after Emily’s death, when the people of Jefferson gather for her funeral. Their curiosity about her life gradually leads the reader into the history of the Grierson family. We learn about Emily’s strict father, her isolated life, her relationship with Homer Barron, and the strange events that take place around her house.

As the story develops, the reader begins to notice that something is not quite right. The townspeople observe Emily from a distance, but they never fully understand what is happening behind the closed doors of her home. The mystery becomes deeper as Emily grows older, withdraws further from society, and refuses to accept many of the changes taking place around her.

Faulkner tells the story in an unusual way. The events are not presented in simple chronological order. Instead, the narrative moves between different periods of Emily’s life, gradually revealing important pieces of information. This structure creates suspense and encourages the reader to pay close attention to small details.

About William Faulkner

William Faulkner (1897–1962) was one of the most influential American writers of the twentieth century. He was born in Mississippi and became closely associated with the American South, its history, traditions, social divisions, and changing way of life.

Many of his works explore the relationship between the past and the present. His characters often struggle with family history, social expectations, memory, guilt, loss, and the difficulty of accepting change.

Faulkner is also famous for his sophisticated narrative techniques. He frequently experimented with time, perspective, and the way information is revealed to the reader. A Rose for Emily is a particularly good example of this technique.

The story’s language and structure can be challenging for English learners, but these same qualities make it valuable for advanced students who want to move beyond simple textbook English and experience more authentic literary English.

This version of A Rose for Emily has been carefully rewritten for C1-level English learners.

The adaptation preserves the major characters, important events, central conflicts, historical atmosphere, psychological tension, mystery, and ending of Faulkner’s story. However, the original wording has been completely reworked into clearer and more accessible C1 English.

The purpose is not to turn the story into a simple summary. Instead, it remains a complete narrative with scenes, dialogue, descriptions, atmosphere, and suspense.

Some of Faulkner’s original complexity has been adjusted so that advanced English learners can follow the story more comfortably. At the same time, the adaptation retains enough sophisticated vocabulary, varied sentence structures, literary descriptions, and natural expressions to provide a genuine C1-level reading experience.

The story has also been divided into five chapters. This structure makes the long narrative easier to read and allows learners to follow Emily’s life and the gradual development of the mystery.

What Is the Story About?

At the heart of the story is Emily Grierson’s struggle with a world that refuses to remain unchanged.

Her father has shaped much of her early life. After his death, Emily becomes increasingly isolated. Later, her relationship with Homer Barron attracts the attention and judgment of the entire town.

As the years pass, Emily becomes more and more separated from the society around her. Her house gradually becomes a symbol of the past, while the world outside continues to develop.

But the real mystery lies inside the house.

The townspeople see only fragments of Emily’s life. They speculate, judge, pity, and gossip, yet they never completely understand her. The truth is revealed only gradually, and the final discovery gives a disturbing new meaning to many of the events that came before it.

For this reason, it is important to read the story carefully and notice the small clues placed throughout the narrative.

Why Should You Read This Story?

There are several reasons why A Rose for Emily is especially valuable for C1 English learners.

1. Learn Advanced Literary English

The story introduces you to a richer range of English vocabulary and expressions. You will encounter descriptive language, precise verbs, abstract nouns, natural collocations, and sophisticated sentence structures in meaningful contexts.

Instead of learning advanced vocabulary from isolated word lists, you can see how these words function naturally inside a story.

2. Improve Reading Comprehension

Faulkner’s story does not present every event in a straightforward chronological order. You need to connect information from different parts of the narrative and understand how the past relates to the present.

This makes the story excellent practice for advanced reading comprehension.

3. Study Natural Sentence Structures

The adaptation uses a mixture of short, medium, and complex sentences. You will encounter relative clauses, participle clauses, contrast structures, passive constructions, embedded clauses, and other forms commonly found in sophisticated written English.

Reading these structures in context can help you develop a more natural understanding of advanced English grammar.

4. Expand Your Vocabulary Through Context

The story contains many words connected with emotions, relationships, society, appearance, change, memory, and human behavior.

Because these words appear in a meaningful narrative, their meanings can often be understood from context rather than memorized separately.

5. Understand an Important Work of American Literature

Reading this story gives you an opportunity to experience an important piece of American literature while developing your English.

You will also encounter aspects of the historical and social atmosphere of the American South and see how literature can reflect changes in society.

6. Learn to Read Between the Lines

One of the most valuable skills for a C1 learner is understanding information that is not stated directly.

In A Rose for Emily, important facts are sometimes suggested rather than explained. Small details, objects, changes in Emily’s behavior, and the reactions of the townspeople all contribute to the larger meaning of the story.

Learning to notice these details will strengthen your ability to understand implied meaning in English.

7. Experience a Story with Real Suspense

Although this is a literary story, it also contains a strong element of mystery.

The reader gradually becomes aware that something unusual has happened, but the complete truth is hidden until the final part of the story.

This makes the story not only educational but also genuinely engaging to read.

This story has been carefully adapted and rewritten by LearnEnglish-new.com for advanced English learners. The original work, A Rose for Emily, by William Faulkner, is in the public domain. This learner-friendly adaptation uses clear, natural English while preserving the main characters, important events, psychological depth, atmosphere, suspense, and central themes of the original story. It is designed to help C1–C2 learners develop their reading comprehension, vocabulary, and understanding of literary English. Enjoy reading and improve your English skills!

A Rose for Emily

By William Faulkner

Contents

Chapter One: Miss Emily and the Town

Chapter Two: Emily’s Past and Her Father

Chapter Three: Emily and Homer Barron

Chapter Four: Years of Silence

Chapter Five: The Secret Room

Vocabulary

Comprehension Questions

Grammar Exercises

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Chapter One

Miss Emily and the Town

When Miss Emily Grierson died, almost everyone in Jefferson attended her funeral.

The men came partly out of respect. To them, Emily had been more than an ordinary woman. She had become a kind of monument to an earlier generation, a living reminder of a town that had once been very different from the one they knew. The women came for another reason. For years, almost no one had been allowed inside the Grierson house, and now that Emily was dead, curiosity finally overcame restraint.

The house stood at the end of a once-fashionable street. In its better days, it had been an impressive white building with balconies, decorative towers, and elegant details. But Jefferson had changed around it. Businesses, garages, and cotton warehouses had appeared where fine residences had once stood. The street had lost its old character, yet Emily’s house remained.

It stood there stubbornly among newer buildings, surrounded by signs of a changing world. Its paint had faded. Its wooden surfaces had begun to decay. The house seemed almost to resist the passage of time, as though it had refused to accept that the world outside had moved on.

Now Emily herself had finally disappeared from it.

During her lifetime, the town had treated her as a responsibility that could not easily be abandoned. Her family had once occupied a respected position in Jefferson, and the people of the town had inherited a certain obligation toward her.

Years earlier, Colonel Sartoris had been mayor. He had arranged for Emily to pay no local taxes after her father’s death. He knew that Emily would probably refuse charity, so he invented a complicated explanation. According to his story, Emily’s father had once lent the town money, and the town had decided to repay the debt by excusing her taxes.

It was a convenient story, and Emily had accepted it.

For many years, no one challenged the arrangement.

Then a younger generation came to power. The old men who had known Colonel Sartoris were replaced by officials with more practical ideas. They examined the town’s records and discovered that Emily’s name still appeared among those required to pay taxes.

So they sent her a notice.

She did not answer.

They sent another letter and asked her to visit the sheriff’s office. Again, she did not come. Finally, the mayor wrote to her personally and offered either to visit her himself or to send a car.

Emily replied on an old-fashioned sheet of paper in a thin, elegant handwriting.

She simply stated that she no longer went out.

The tax notice was returned with the letter.

The officials decided that they would have to visit her.

A small group of men went to the Grierson house. The old servant, Tobe, opened the door and led them through a dark hallway. Few people had entered that house for many years. The air inside was heavy with dust and neglect. The furniture was large and old-fashioned, covered in cracked leather. A portrait of Emily’s father stood above the fireplace.

When Emily appeared, the men rose.

She was a small, heavy woman dressed entirely in black. A thin gold chain hung around her neck and disappeared into her clothing. She leaned on a dark wooden cane whose gold handle had become dull with age.

Her face was pale, and her eyes appeared unusually small against the fullness of her features. She stood in the doorway without inviting anyone to sit.

The spokesman explained why they had come.

Emily listened without interrupting.

At the end, she answered calmly.

“I have no taxes in Jefferson.”

The men exchanged glances.

They explained that the town records showed otherwise. They reminded her that she had received an official notice.

Emily looked at them.

“See Colonel Sartoris,” she said.

The officials were silent for a moment.

Colonel Sartoris had been dead for nearly ten years.

One of the men tried again.

“Miss Emily, Colonel Sartoris is no longer here. We are the town authorities now.”

Emily did not appear to hear him.

“I have no taxes in Jefferson.”

The conversation continued in circles. The officials tried to explain the situation, but Emily remained completely certain that the old arrangement still existed.

Finally, she called for Tobe.

The servant appeared almost immediately.

“Show these gentlemen out,” Emily said.

The officials left.

That was typical of Miss Emily. She did not argue loudly. She did not threaten anyone. She simply behaved as though the world had no authority to alter the reality she had chosen to accept.

For the people of Jefferson, this was both irritating and fascinating.

Emily seemed to live according to rules that belonged to another time.

The house, too, appeared to exist outside the present.

And perhaps that was why the town could never quite leave her alone.

People watched her. They remembered her family. They discussed her habits. They wondered about her past. They tried to understand why she remained so determined to preserve a life that had already disappeared everywhere around her.

Even before her death, Emily had become a mystery.

The town had never completely solved it.

Now, standing outside her house after the funeral, the people of Jefferson knew that they were about to enter a place that had kept its secrets for decades.

They had no idea how disturbing those secrets would prove to be.

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Chapter Two

Emily’s Past and Her Father

The story of Emily Grierson could not be separated from the story of her family.

For generations, the Griersons had considered themselves superior to the ordinary people of Jefferson. They lived according to their own ideas about status, respectability, and proper behavior. Emily’s father was especially strict about the men who came near his daughter.

In the eyes of the town, he seemed to believe that almost no young man was good enough for her.

People remembered a particular image: Emily standing in the background, while her father stood in front of her with a riding whip in his hand. The picture had become symbolic of the life she had been given. He controlled the door through which possible suitors might have entered.

As the years passed, the young men disappeared.

Emily remained unmarried.

The town noticed.

When she reached an age at which most women were expected to have married, people began to speak about her situation. Some felt sorry for her. Others believed that the Grierson family had always thought too highly of itself.

Emily’s great-aunt, old lady Wyatt, had eventually lost her reason, and people sometimes whispered about that too. Yet they were careful about what they said openly. Emily still carried the dignity of the Grierson name.

Then her father died.

For the first time, Emily was completely alone.

People expected her to collapse under the weight of grief. Instead, she behaved as though nothing had happened.

The day after his death, several women came to the house to offer their sympathy. Emily met them at the door.

She told them that her father was not dead.

They were shocked.

The same thing happened the next day.

And the day after that.

Doctors were called. Ministers visited. People tried to persuade her to accept the fact that the body could not remain in the house indefinitely.

Emily refused.

For three days, she insisted that her father was still alive.

Eventually, she broke down.

The town arranged the burial.

People did not immediately call her insane. In a strange way, they understood her behavior. Her father had controlled almost every part of her life. He had driven away the men who might have married her. Even though he had left her isolated, she had been deeply dependent on him.

Now he was gone.

Emily had lost the person who had dominated her life, but she had also lost the only world she knew.

Not long afterward, another mystery appeared.

A terrible smell began to come from the Grierson property.

At first, the neighbors tried to ignore it.

That became increasingly difficult.

One woman finally complained to Judge Stevens, an elderly man who was still one of the town’s most respected figures.

“What do you expect me to do?” he asked.

The woman insisted that something had to be done.

Judge Stevens suggested that it might be a dead animal. Perhaps Tobe had killed a rat or some other creature in the yard.

But more complaints followed.

The smell became stronger.

A younger member of the town council wanted to send Emily a formal warning and order her to clean the property. The older men rejected the idea.

They could not imagine openly telling a woman of Emily’s position that her house smelled.

So they chose another solution.

Late one night, several men entered the Grierson property secretly.

They moved around the house like thieves, careful not to be seen. They examined the walls and cellar openings. Then they spread lime around the foundations and in the outbuildings.

While they worked, one of the windows suddenly became illuminated.

Emily was sitting inside.

Her body appeared motionless against the light, like a figure carved from stone.

The men quickly moved away.

Within a week or two, the smell disappeared.

No one ever confronted Emily about it.

That silence was characteristic of Jefferson.

The town judged her constantly, but it also protected her from public humiliation.

People pitied her.

They had once envied the Griersons, but Emily’s father’s death had changed something. He had left her almost nothing except the house.

She was no longer the protected daughter of a powerful man.

She was alone.

And the town could finally see her as a human being rather than a symbol of family pride.

Yet Emily did not become part of ordinary society.

She withdrew further.

The house became darker and quieter.

Years passed.

The outside world continued to change, but inside the Grierson house, time seemed to stand still.

Emily remained surrounded by the objects and memories of the past.

Her father’s portrait stayed in its place. The old furniture remained.

The house accumulated dust.

And Emily continued to live according to a reality that seemed increasingly distant from the world outside.

People sometimes saw her at a window. Sometimes they heard that she had gone somewhere. But for the most part, the house remained closed.

Then, one summer, a construction company arrived in Jefferson. With it came a man named Homer Barron.

His arrival would change Emily’s life. Or perhaps it would reveal something that had been hidden inside her for a very long time.

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Chapter Three

Emily and Homer Barron

The town had contracted a company to repair and pave its sidewalks.

The workers arrived with horses, equipment, and machinery. Their foreman was Homer Barron, a large, energetic man from the North.

He was confident, loud, and sociable.

Before long, everyone in Jefferson knew him.

He joked with the workers and talked freely with the townspeople. Whenever there was laughter around the square, Homer was often somewhere nearby.

Then people began to notice something else.

Homer Barron was spending time with Miss Emily.

On Sunday afternoons, the two of them could sometimes be seen driving through town in a yellow-wheeled carriage.

The news spread quickly.

People were fascinated.

Some were pleased that Emily had finally found someone to spend time with. Others were shocked. Homer was a Northerner and a working man, while Emily belonged to one of Jefferson’s oldest families.

The difference in their social positions seemed obvious.

The older people of the town believed that a Grierson woman should behave according to the traditions of her family.

They said that Emily’s relatives ought to come and look after her.

But Emily did not appear to care what people thought.

She continued to meet Homer.

She carried herself proudly whenever they were seen together, as though she wanted everyone to understand that she had made her own decision.

For the first time in years, there seemed to be movement in her life.

People began to imagine that she might marry him.

Then they began to doubt it.

Homer himself had made it clear that he was not a man who intended to marry. He enjoyed the company of other men and was known to drink with younger members of the town.

Still, Emily continued to see him.

The town watched.

Women whispered behind closed blinds.

Men pretended not to be interested.

But almost everyone knew what was happening.

Eventually, Emily’s behavior became a subject of moral concern.

Some women argued that her relationship with Homer was inappropriate and that it set a bad example for younger people.

The local minister was persuaded to visit her.

No one ever learned exactly what happened during their conversation. The minister never discussed it, and he refused to visit Emily again.

Soon afterward, Emily’s relatives from Alabama arrived.

They were two female cousins, strict women who seemed to embody the old Grierson traditions even more strongly than Emily herself.

The town watched them closely.

People expected the cousins to prevent Emily from continuing her relationship with Homer.

But after some time, the cousins left.

Then Homer Barron returned to Jefferson.

One evening, Tobe was seen allowing him into the house through the kitchen door.

After that, Homer was never seen again.

For a time, the town assumed that he had gone away for some reason. Perhaps he had left temporarily. Perhaps he had decided to avoid the gossip surrounding Emily.

People waited.

But he did not return.

Emily disappeared from public view.

Then another strange event occurred.

Shortly before Homer’s disappearance, Emily had gone to the druggist and asked for poison.

The druggist tried to determine what she wanted it for.

Emily did not explain.

“I want the best you have,” she said.

The druggist mentioned several poisons.

Emily asked specifically for arsenic.

The druggist hesitated.

The law required him to know how she intended to use it.

Emily looked directly at him.

She gave no explanation.

Eventually, the arsenic was sold to her.

The package was delivered to the Grierson house.

On the box, beneath the warning symbol, the druggist had written that it was intended for killing rats.

At the time, no one knew what Emily planned to do with it.

People talked.

Some said she might kill herself.

Others believed she intended to use it against some creature in the house.

The truth remained hidden.

Meanwhile, the town continued to speculate about Homer.

Then one evening, he was seen entering the Grierson house.

That was the last confirmed sighting of him.

After that, the front door remained closed.

Tobe continued to go in and out with a market basket.

He rarely spoke to anyone.

Months passed.

Emily was not seen in public.

At first, the town was curious.

Then the curiosity became something quieter.

People began to accept her absence.

They had always believed that something in Emily had been shaped by her father. He had controlled her life so completely that perhaps she had never learned how to live independently.

Now she seemed to have withdrawn into the same world of isolation that had surrounded her for years.

No one knew exactly what happened inside the house.

No one asked Tobe.

And Emily herself offered no explanation.

The house kept its secret.

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Chapter Four

Years of Silence

After Homer Barron disappeared, Emily remained inside the Grierson house for a long time. When she eventually appeared again, she had changed.

She had grown heavier, and her hair was beginning to turn gray.

Years passed.

The gray became darker and more pronounced until it had the strong, even color of iron.

Yet her appearance was not the only thing that changed.

The world around her changed too.

Jefferson entered a new generation.

Old traditions weakened.

New officials took office.

New customs appeared.

The town became more modern.

Emily resisted almost all of it.

For several years, she gave lessons in china painting. Young girls from respectable families were sent to her house to learn.

Those lessons gave Emily a limited connection with the outside world.

But eventually, the girls grew older.

They stopped coming.

Their own children did not continue the tradition.

The studio became empty.

The front door closed again.

This time, it remained closed.

The town introduced free postal delivery.

Workers wanted to attach modern house numbers and a mailbox to Emily’s property.

She refused.

She would not allow the changes.

The people of Jefferson found this strange, but they had grown accustomed to Emily’s resistance.

Each year, the town sent her a tax notice.

Each year, the notice came back unclaimed.

No one could persuade her to accept the modern system.

Inside the house, Tobe grew old.

He had entered the Grierson household as a young man. Now his back was bent, his hair was gray, and his movements were slower.

Still, he continued his routine.

He went to the market.

He carried food into the house.

He returned with empty baskets.

He spoke very little.

The townspeople sometimes caught a glimpse of Emily through a downstairs window.

She appeared motionless, almost like a statue placed behind glass.

No one could tell whether she was watching them or simply looking into the distance.

Emily had become a strange kind of presence in Jefferson.

She was still alive, but she seemed to belong to another era.

The town changed around her.

People who had known her father died.

Their children grew old.

A new generation took their places.

Emily remained.

She seemed almost untouched by ordinary time.

Yet time was passing.

Her body changed.

Her hair became completely gray.

Her house became more neglected.

Dust gathered in rooms that were rarely used.

The upper floor was closed.

The lower rooms were still part of her life, but the rest of the house seemed to disappear into darkness.

People occasionally wondered what was upstairs.

They knew that there was a room that had remained locked for many years.

But Emily had never permitted anyone to enter.

The town did not force the matter.

Not until she died.

Emily became seriously ill in her final days, although almost no one knew about it.

She had lived so privately that the town had stopped expecting information about her.

Even Tobe spoke to almost no one.

His voice had become rough and unused, as though silence had become his natural condition.

Emily died in one of the downstairs rooms.

She was seventy-four years old.

For the people of Jefferson, her death marked the end of something larger than a single life.

She had been the last visible connection with an older order of society.

Her family had once represented privilege, pride, and tradition.

Now there was almost nothing left of that world.

Only the house remained.

After Emily’s death, Tobe opened the front door to the women who came to pay their respects.

They entered quietly.

They spoke in low voices.

They looked around with the curiosity they had suppressed for decades.

Then Tobe disappeared.

He walked through the house, went out the back door, and was never seen in Jefferson again.

The funeral was held two days later.

People came from every part of town.

Flowers covered Emily’s coffin.

The old men sat nearby and remembered her as though she had belonged to their own youth.

Some spoke about dances and courtships that had taken place decades earlier.

For them, the past was not a distant road.

It was an enormous landscape in which many different periods seemed to exist at once.

But one fact occupied everyone’s thoughts.

There was a room upstairs that had been closed for approximately forty years.

No one had entered it.

No one knew exactly what was inside.

Now that Emily was dead, the town believed it finally had the right to find out.

They waited until the funeral was over.

Then they went upstairs.

The door resisted them.

It had been locked for years.

They forced it open.

A cloud of dust rose immediately.

The people standing outside the room could smell something old and dry in the air.

For a moment, no one moved.

Then they stepped inside.

What they found there would finally explain the mysteries that had surrounded Emily Grierson for so many years.

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Chapter Five

The Secret Room

The room had been prepared like a bridal chamber. Its walls were decorated in faded colors.

The curtains had once been bright, but years of darkness had weakened them. Dust covered almost everything.

There were delicate objects on a dressing table.

A man’s toilet set stood there, backed by tarnished silver.

The initials H.B. were still visible, although time had darkened the metal.

A collar and tie lay nearby.

They looked as though someone had removed them only moments before.

A man’s suit had been carefully placed on a chair.

Beneath it were a pair of shoes and a pair of socks.

The room was silent.

Then the people noticed the bed.

Someone was lying on it.

For several seconds, nobody understood what they were seeing.

Then the truth became unavoidable.

It was Homer Barron.

Or what remained of him.

He had been dead for many years.

His body had decayed until it had become part of the bed on which it lay. The clothes that had once covered him had almost disappeared. Dust had settled over everything, covering the body, the bed, and the objects around it.

The room had preserved him in terrible silence.

No one spoke.

The people of Jefferson had spent years wondering what had happened to Homer Barron.

Now they knew.

Emily had not sent him away.

He had never left the house.

The mystery of the arsenic suddenly acquired a horrifying meaning.

The smell that had once surrounded the house was no longer mysterious.

Emily’s long period of isolation was no longer mysterious.

The closed room was no longer mysterious.

But there was still one final detail.

On the bed, beside the remains of Homer Barron, lay another pillow.

Someone stepped closer.

There was a visible indentation in the pillow.

It looked as though a head had rested there.

The dust had settled over the surface, except where the shape of a human head had disturbed it.

For a moment, the people simply stared.

Then one of them noticed something lying on the pillow.

It was a strand of hair.

Not dark hair.

Not the hair of a young woman.

It was long and iron-gray.

Emily’s hair.

The discovery completed the terrible story.

For years, Emily had lived in that house with the memory of Homer Barron beside her.

She had refused to accept the loss of the people she loved.

She had refused to accept her father’s death.

She had resisted the disappearance of the old Grierson world.

She had resisted taxes, postal delivery, changing customs, and the movement of generations.

Above all, she had resisted time.

The house had become a place where the past could remain untouched.

Outside, Jefferson had changed.

Inside, Emily had created a world in which nothing truly had to end.

The town had watched her from a distance for decades.

It had judged her.

It had pitied her.

It had gossiped about her.

It had tried to understand her.

But it had never truly known what was happening behind the closed doors of the Grierson house.

Only after her death did the people enter the locked room.

Only then did they discover the final secret.

And only then could they understand how completely Emily had separated herself from the world outside.

The old house had preserved more than furniture and dust.

It had preserved a past that Emily could not surrender.

The town had moved forward.

Emily had remained behind.

And in the silent room upstairs, the past had waited for them all those years.

It had waited in darkness, beneath a patient layer of dust, until the door was finally opened.

The End

Read the original story: americanliterature.com

Vocabulary

Comprehension Questions

Grammar Exercises

Answer Key

1-A, 2-B, 3-A, 4-C, 5-B, 6-B, 7-C, 8-B, 9-A, 10-C, 11-A, 12-A, 13-A, 14-B, 15-A, 16-A, 17-C, 18-A, 19-A, 20-C

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