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At the other end of the spectrum, in Maryland and New York, the states with the most active Advanced Placement programs, more than 23 percent of high school graduates passed an exam. And California, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Virginia also had at least one in five graduates pass an A.P. exam last year.

Low-income students made up 17 percent of those who took A.P. exams last year, up from 16.2 percent in 2007, the report said.

elephant, a ponderous house,

melon strolling on two tendrils

red fruit, ivory, fine timbers

yeasty

big with

Money's new-minted

means, a stage, a cow in calf

eaten a bag of green apples

Boarded the train there's no getting off.

My father!--methinks I see my father. HORATIO Where, my lord? HAMLET In my mind's eye, Horatio.

Enter HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and BERNARDO HORATIO Hail to your lordship! HAMLET I am glad to see you well:

O, that this too too solid flesh would melt  Thaw and resolve itself into
a dew
>!  Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd  His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!  How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, 135 Seem to me all the uses of this world!  Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,  That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature  Possess it merely. That it should come to this!  But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two: 140 So excellent a king; that was, to this,  Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother  That he might not beteem the winds of heaven  Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!  Must I remember? why, she would hang on him, 145 As if increase of appetite had grown  By what it fed on: and yet, within a month--  Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is woman!--  A little month, or ere those shoes were old  With which she follow'd my poor father's body, 150 Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she--  O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,  Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle,  My father's brother, but no more like my father  Than I to Hercules: within a month: 155 Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears  Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,  She married. O, most wicked speed, to post  With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!  It is not nor it cannot come to good: 160 But break, my heart;

I must hold my tongue.  

a dew

No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day,  But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell,  And the king's rouse the heavens all bruit again,  Re-speaking earthly thunder.

obey you, madam.

For your intent  In going back to school in Wittenberg, 115 It is most retrograde to our desire:  And we beseech you, bend you to remain  Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye,  Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.

For what we know must be and is as common 100 As any the most vulgar thing to sense,  Why should we in our peevish opposition  Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven,  A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,  To reason most absurd: whose common theme 105 Is death of fathers,

Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief;

Seems, madam! nay it is; I know not 'seems.'

Ay, madam, it is common.

That can denote me truly: these indeed seem, 85 For they are actions that a man might play:

Not so, my lord; I am too much i' the sun.

But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son,--

And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?

Thus much the business is: we have here writ  To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,--  Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears 30 Of this his nephew's purpose,--to suppress  His further gait herein;

Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,  Holding a weak supposal of our worth,  Or thinking by our late dear brother's death 20 Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,  Colleagued with the dream of his advantage,  He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,  Importing the surrender of those lands  Lost by his father, with all bonds of law, 25 To our most valiant brother.

The memory be green, and that it us befitted

come to Hecuba. First Player 'But who, O, who had seen the mobled queen--' HAMLET 'The mobled queen?' LORD POLONIUS That's good; 'mobled queen' is good. First Player 'Run barefoot up and down, threatening the flames 510 With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head  Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe,  About her lank and all o'er-teemed loins,  A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;  Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd, 515 'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have  pronounced:  But if the gods themselves did see her then  When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport  In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs, 520 The instant burst of clamour that she made,  Unless things mortal move them not at all,  Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven,  And passion in the gods.' LORD POLONIUS Look, whether he has not turned his colour and has 525 tears in's eyes. Pray you, no more. HAMLET 'Tis well: I'll have thee speak out the rest soon.  Good my lord, will you see the players well  bestowed? Do you hear, let them be well used; for  they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the 530 time: after your death you were better have a bad  epitaph than their ill report while you live.

Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods,  In general synod 'take away her power;  Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel, 500 And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven,  As low as to the fiends!'

Pyrrhus at Priam drives; in rage strikes wide;  But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword  The unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium,  Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top 480 Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash  Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear: for, lo! his sword,  Which was declining on the milky head  Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick:  So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood, 485 And like a neutral to his will and matter,  Did nothing. 

First Player 'Anon he finds him  Striking too short at Greeks; his antique sword,  Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls, 475 Repugnant to command

I have of late--but 305 wherefore I know not--lost all my mirth, forgone all  custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily  with my disposition that this goodly frame, the  earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most  excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave 310 o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted  with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to  me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours.  What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!  how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how 315 express and admirable! in action how like an angel!  in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the  world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,  what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not  me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling 320 you seem to say so. ROSENCRANTZ My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts. HAMLET Why did you laugh then, when I said 'man delights not me'? ROSENCRANTZ To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what  lenten entertainment the players shall receive from 325 you: we coted them on the way; and hither are they  coming, to offer you service. HAMLET He that plays the king shall be welcome; his majesty  shall have tribute of me; the adventurous knight  shall use his foil and target; the lover shall not 330 sigh gratis; the humourous man shall end his part  in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose  lungs are tickled o' the sere; and the lady shall  say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt  for't. What players are they? 335ROSENCRANTZ Even those you were wont to take delight in, the  tragedians of the city. HAMLET How chances it they travel? their residence, both  in reputation and profit, was better both ways. ROSENCRANTZ I think their inhibition comes by the means of the 340 late innovation. HAMLET Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was  in the city? are they so followed? ROSENCRANTZ No, indeed, are they not. HAMLET How comes it? do they grow rusty? 345ROSENCRANTZ Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: but  there is, sir, an aery of children, little eyases,  that cry out on the top of question, and are most  tyrannically clapped for't: these are now the  fashion, and so berattle the common stages--so they 350 call them--that many wearing rapiers are afraid of  goose-quills and dare scarce come thither. HAMLET What, are they children? who maintains 'em? how are  they escoted? Will they pursue the quality no  longer than they can sing? will they not say 355 afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common  players--as it is most like, if their means are no  better--their writers do them wrong, to make them  exclaim against their own succession? ROSENCRANTZ 'Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and 360 the nation holds it no sin to tarre them to  controversy: there was, for a while, no money bid  for argument, unless the poet and the player went to  cuffs in the question. HAMLET Is't possible? 365GUILDENSTERN O, there has been much throwing about of brains. HAMLET Do the boys carry it away? ROSENCRANTZ Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too. HAMLET It is not very strange; for mine uncle is king of  Denmark, and those that would make mows at him while 370 my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an  hundred ducats a-piece for his picture in little.  'Sblood, there is something in this more than  natural, if philosophy could find it out.  Flourish of trumpets within GUILDENSTERN There are the players. 375HAMLET Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands,  come then: the appurtenance of welcome is fashion  and ceremony: let me comply with you in this garb,  lest my extent to the players, which, I tell you,  must show fairly outward, should more appear like 380 entertainment than yours. You are welcome: but my  uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived. GUILDENSTERN In what, my dear lord? HAMLET I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is  southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw. 385 Enter POLONIUS

As the indifferent children of the earth. GUILDENSTERN Happy, in that we are not over-happy; 240 On fortune's cap we are not the very button. HAMLET Nor the soles of her shoe? ROSENCRANTZ Neither, my lord. HAMLET Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of  her favours? 245GUILDENSTERN 'Faith, her privates we. HAMLET In the secret parts of fortune? O, most true; she  is a strumpet. What's the news? ROSENCRANTZ None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest. HAMLET Then is doomsday near: but your news is not true. 250 Let me question more in particular: what have you,  my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune,  that she sends you to prison hither? GUILDENSTERN Prison, my lord! HAMLET Denmark's a prison. 255ROSENCRANTZ Then is the world one. HAMLET A goodly one; in which there are many confines,  wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst. ROSENCRANTZ We think not so, my lord. HAMLET Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing 260 either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me  it is a prison. ROSENCRANTZ Why then, your ambition makes it one; 'tis too  narrow for your mind. HAMLET O God, I could be bounded in a nut shell and count 265 myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I  have bad dreams. GUILDENSTERN Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very  substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. HAMLET A dream itself is but a shadow. 270ROSENCRANTZ Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a  quality that it is but a shadow's shadow. HAMLET Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and  outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we  to the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason. 275ROSENCRANTZ |  | We'll wait upon you. GUILDENSTERN | HAMLET No such matter: I will not sort you with the rest  of my servants, for, to speak to you like an honest 280 man, I am most dreadfully attended. But, in the  beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore? ROSENCRANTZ To visit you, my lord; no other occasion. HAMLET Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I  thank you: and sure, dear friends, my thanks are 285 too dear a halfpenny. Were you not sent for? Is it  your own inclining? Is it a free visitation? Come,  deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak. GUILDENSTERN What should we say, my lord? HAMLET Why, any thing, but to the purpose. You were sent 290 for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks  which your modesties have not craft enough to colour:  I know the good king and queen have sent for you. ROSENCRANTZ To what end, my lord? HAMLET That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by 295 the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of  our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved  love, and by what more dear a better proposer could  charge you withal, be even and direct with me,  whether you were sent for, or no? 300ROSENCRANTZ Aside to GUILDENSTERN HAMLET Aside  love me, hold not off. GUILDENSTERN My lord, we were sent for. HAMLET I will tell you why; so shall my anticipation  prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king  and queen moult no feather.

Hath there been such a time--I'd fain know that--  That I have positively said 'Tis so,'  When it proved otherwise? 165KING CLAUDIUS Not that I know. LORD POLONIUS Pointing to his head and shoulder  Take this from this, if this be otherwise:  If circumstances lead me, I will find  Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed  Within the centre.

This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me,  And more above, hath his solicitings,  As they fell out by time, by means and place,  All given to mine ear.

Upon our first, he sent out to suppress  His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd  To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack;  But, better look'd into, he truly found  It was against your highness: whereat grieved, 70 That so his sickness, age and impotence  Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests  On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys;  Receives rebuke from Norway, and in fine  Makes vow before his uncle never more 75 To give the assay of arms against your majesty.

He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found  The head and source of all your son's distemper. QUEEN GERTRUDE I doubt it is no other but the main; 60 His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage. KING CLAUDIUS Well, we shall sift him.

ACT II SCENE II A room in the castle.  Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, ROSENCRANTZ,GUILDENSTERN, and Attendants KING CLAUDIUS Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern!  Moreover that we much did long to see you,  The need we have to use you did provoke  Our hasty sending. Something have you heard 5 Of Hamlet's transformation; so call it,  Sith nor the exterior nor the inward man  Resembles that it was. What it should be,  More than his father's death, that thus hath put him  So much from the understanding of himself, 10 I cannot dream of: I entreat you both,  That, being of so young days brought up with him,  And sith so neighbour'd to his youth and havior,  That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court  Some little time: so by your companies 15 To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather,  So much as from occasion you may glean,  Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus,  That, open'd, lies within our remedy. QUEEN GERTRUDE Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you; 20 And sure I am two men there are not living  To whom he more adheres. If it will please you  To show us so much gentry and good will  As to expend your time with us awhile,  For the supply and profit of our hope, 25 Your visitation shall receive such thanks  As fits a king's remembrance. ROSENCRANTZ Both your majesties  Might, by the sovereign power you have of us,  Put your dread pleasures more into command 30 Than to entreaty. GUILDENSTERN But we both obey,  And here give up ourselves, in the full bent  To lay our service freely at your feet,  To be commanded. 35KING CLAUDIUS Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern. QUEEN GERTRUDE Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz:  And I beseech you instantly to visit  My too much changed son. Go, some of you,  And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is. 40GUILDENSTERN Heavens make our presence and our practises  Pleasant and helpful to him! QUEEN GERTRUDE Ay, amen!  Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and someAttendants

Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN LORD POLONIUS You go to seek the Lord Hamlet; there he is.

KING CLAUDIUS How may we try it further? LORD POLONIUS You know, sometimes he walks four hours together  Here in the lobby. 

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

ACT III SCENE I 

Where's your father? OPHELIA At home, my lord.

Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a  breeder of sinners?

What should such fellows as I do crawling  between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves,  all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery.

OPHELIA O, help him, you sweet heavens! 145HAMLET If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for  thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as  snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a  nunnery, go: farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs  marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough 150 what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go,  and quickly too. Farewell.

O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!  The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword;  The expectancy and rose of the fair state, 165 The glass of fashion and the mould of form,  The observed of all observers, quite, quite down!  And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,  That suck'd the honey of his music vows,  Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, 170 Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;  That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth  Blasted with ecstasy: O, woe is me,  To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

There's something in his soul,  O'er which his melancholy sits on brood;  And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose  Will be some danger: which for to prevent, 180 I have in quick determination  Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England,

to the noble mind 110 Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.

And lose the name of action.--Soft you now!

OPHELIA O, my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!

Ghost I find thee apt;  And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed  That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,  Wouldst thou not stir in this.

Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,  With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,--  O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power 50 So to seduce!--won to his shameful lust  The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen:  O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there!  From me, whose love was of that dignity  That it went hand in hand even with the vow 55 I made to her in marriage, and to decline  Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor  To those of mine!  But virtue, as it never will be moved,  Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven, 60 So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd,  Will sate itself in a celestial bed,  And prey on garbage.

Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand 80 Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd:  Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,  Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd,  No reckoning made, but sent to my account  With all my imperfections on my head: 85 O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible!

Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard, 65 My custom always of the afternoon,  Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,  With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,  And in the porches of my ears did pour  The leperous distilment; whose effect 70 Holds such an enmity with blood of man  That swift as quicksilver it courses through  The natural gates and alleys of the body,  And with a sudden vigour doth posset  And curd, like eager droppings into milk, 75 The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine;  And a most instant tetter bark'd about,  Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust,  All my smooth body.

If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;  Let not the royal bed of Denmark be  A couch for luxury and damned incest.  But, howsoever thou pursuest this act, 90 Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive  Against thy mother aught: leave her to heaven  And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge,  To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once!

O all you host of heaven! O earth! what else?  And shall I couple hell? O, fie! Hold, hold, my heart;  And you, my sinews, grow not instant old, 100 But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee!  Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat  In this distracted globe. Remember thee!  Yea, from the table of my memory  I'll wipe away all trivial fond records, 105 All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,  That youth and observation copied there;  And thy commandment all alone shall live  Within the book and volume of my brain,  Unmix'd with baser matter: yes, by heaven! 110 O most pernicious woman!  O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!  My tables,--meet it is I set it down,  That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain;  At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmark: 115 Writing  So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word;  It is 'Adieu, adieu! remember me.'  I have sworn 't.

and for mine own poor part,  Look you, I'll go pray.

The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,  That ever I was born to set it right!

As I perchance hereafter shall think meet  To put an antic disposition on,  That you, at such times seeing me, never shall, 185 With arms encumber'd thus, or this headshake,  Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,  As 'Well, well, we know,' or 'We could, an if we would,'  Or 'If we list to speak,' or 'There be, an if they might,'  Or such ambiguous giving out, to note 190 That you know aught of me:

Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain,  If with too credent ear you list his songs,  Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open  To his unmaster'd importunity. 35 Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister,  And keep you in the rear of your affection,  Out of the shot and danger of desire.  The chariest maid is prodigal enough,  If she unmask her beauty to the moon: 40 Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes:  The canker galls the infants of the spring,  Too oft before their buttons be disclosed,  And in the morn and liquid dew of youth  Contagious blastments are most imminent. 45 Be wary then; best safety lies in fear:  Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.

This above all: to thine ownself be true,  And it must follow, as the night the day,  Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Marry,

That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay,  Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly;  Or--not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,  Running it thus--you'll tender me a fool. OPHELIA My lord, he hath importuned me with love 115 In honourable fashion. LORD POLONIUS Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to. OPHELIA And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,  With almost all the holy vows of heaven. LORD POLONIUS Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know, 120 When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul  Lends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter,  Giving more light than heat, extinct in both,  Even in their promise, as it is a-making,  You must not take for fire. From this time 125 Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence;  Set your entreatments at a higher rate  Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet,  Believe so much in him, that he is young  And with a larger tether may he walk 130 Than may be given you: in few, Ophelia,  Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers,  Not of that dye which their investments show,  But mere implorators of unholy suits,  Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds, 135 The better to beguile. This is for all: