Closed Reading Essay “Conflict” is something that we encounter daily. We see it happens and we are in it ourselves. Whether it is a simple disagreement over a dress color or argument over political parties, we are in conflict with one another. To solve a conflict, one has to change and compromise to create harmony between conflicts. So what is the definition of conflict? Dictionary.com defined conflict as “to come into collision or disagreement; be contradictory, at variance, or in opposition; clash”. There are seven different types of conflict in literature, we will however, highlight only 4 main conflicts: Person, nature, self, and society. The story, “Refresh, Refresh”, by Benjamin Percy has done an amazing job of showing the masculinity of a man, boys who want to be a man, and grief the passing of their youth. It’s a story that brilliantly crafted to show how Josh, the protagonist and his friend, Gordon deal with many hardships and conflicts in their life and how they changed themselves from destructive, lost, immoral boy to goal-driven and honorable man by resolving their conflicts. The conflicts in the story made Josh and Gordon destructive, lost, and even immoral. In the book, resolving conflict can helps you grow. The conflict made Josh and Gordon destructive when Seth Johnson, a linebacker brutally beat up Gordon in the beginning of the story. Being in a constant fear of being picked on by Seth again, Gordon and Josh turned themselves into destructive character. Gordon and Josh are constantly fighting each other. They fought each other to the point of having permanent injury and internal bleeding. “We fought so much our wounds never got a chance to heal and our faces took on a permanent look of decay. Our wrists felts swollen, our knees ached, our joints felt full of tiny dry wasps.” (Percy). They fought each other to be tougher and hurt people who hurt them. One evening, Josh went to hunt with Gordon. Gordon and Josh shot a four point stag during their hunting trip. After the animal has died, they skin it, cut out the antler and neatly store the meat. By killing the animal, Gordon and Josh displayed person vs. nature conflict. Their destructive level intensified when Gordon and Josh spotted Seth in the forest during their deer hunting trip and began their vengeance. They took revenge on Seth and his friends by stealing all their rifles and deflated all their car tires. Gordon took a step further and frightened Seth by dressing up as a monster. Just before Christmas, the destructive level finally came to an end when Dave Lightener, a recruiting officer who informed family the news of their loved one, showed up at Seth’s door with the most horrific sentence any family will hear I regret to inform you. It turns out Seth father has died.Reflecting on their actions, Josh and Gordon drove down to Seth’s house to return the rifles they had previously stolen while adding some beers and money as extras. Gordon and Josh’s destructive level.

1. Closed Reading Essay
“Conflict” is something that we encounter daily. We see it
happens and we are in it ourselves. Whether it is a simple
disagreement over a dress color or argument over political
parties, we are in conflict with one another. To solve a conflict,
one has to change and compromise to create harmony between
conflicts. So what is the definition of conflict? Dictionary.com
defined conflict as “to come into collision or disagreement; be
contradictory, at variance, or in opposition; clash”. There are
seven different types of conflict in literature, we will however,
highlight only 4 main conflicts: Person, nature, self, and
society. The story, “Refresh, Refresh”, by Benjamin Percy has
done an amazing job of showing the masculinity of a man, boys
who want to be a man, and grief the passing of their youth. It’s
a story that brilliantly crafted to show how Josh, the protagonist
and his friend, Gordon deal with many hardships and conflicts
in their life and how they changed themselves from destructive,
lost, immoral boy to goal-driven and honorable man by
resolving their conflicts. The conflicts in the story made Josh
and Gordon destructive, lost, and even immoral. In the book,
resolving conflict can helps you grow.
The conflict made Josh and Gordon destructive when Seth
Johnson, a linebacker brutally beat up Gordon in the beginning
of the story. Being in a constant fear of being picked on by Seth
again, Gordon and Josh turned themselves into destructive
character. Gordon and Josh are constantly fighting each other.
They fought each other to the point of having permanent injury
and internal bleeding. “We fought so much our wounds never
got a chance to heal and our faces took on a permanent look of
decay. Our wrists felts swollen, our knees ached, our joints felt
full of tiny dry wasps.” (Percy). They fought each other to be
tougher and hurt people who hurt them.
One evening, Josh went to hunt with Gordon. Gordon and Josh

2. shot a four point stag during their hunting trip. After the animal
has died, they skin it, cut out the antler and neatly store the
meat. By killing the animal, Gordon and Josh displayed person
vs. nature conflict. Their destructive level intensified when
Gordon and Josh spotted Seth in the forest during their deer
hunting trip and began their vengeance. They took revenge on
Seth and his friends by stealing all their rifles and deflated all
their car tires. Gordon took a step further and frightened Seth
by dressing up as a monster.
Just before Christmas, the destructive level finally came to an
end when Dave Lightener, a recruiting officer who informed
family the news of their loved one, showed up at Seth’s door
with the most horrific sentence any family will hear I regret to
inform you. It turns out Seth father has died.Reflecting on their
actions, Josh and Gordon drove down to Seth’s house to return
the rifles they had previously stolen while adding some beers
and money as extras. Gordon and Josh’s destructive level slowly
dies down as they moan for Seth lost while fearing for theirs.
The conflict of not having their father has made them lost. With
their fathers gone to war, Josh and Gordon think the society are
dull, boring, and filled with old people. “There were old men,
like my grandfather, whom I lived with – men who paid their
dues, who had worked their jobs and fought their wars and now
spent their days at the gas station, drinking bad coffee from
Styrofoam cups.” (Percy). Josh and Gordon also starting to feel
lost with the idea of not having their father to guide them. So
during Josh and Gordon discussion of war and killing Muslim,
Josh quickly mocked the idea of war. “”Yeah,” I said. “Kill
some people then get myself killed.” I grimaced even as I
played along, “That sounds like a good plan.” (Percy). Josh and
Gordon doesn’t like the fact that war has taken their father
because they are so dependent of their father. Overhearing the
conversation, Dave was offended and said that it’s a sick joke.
Not having hear from his father for a long time has made Josh
adrift even further. Josh keep hitting the email refresh button in
hoping that his father are still alive. “We could only cross our

3. fingers and wish on stars and hit refresh, refresh, hoping they
would return to us, praying we would never find Dave Lightener
on our porch uttering the words I regret to inform you . . .”
(Percy). Haven’t heard from his father for weeks, Josh
constantly hit the refresh button until there is an e-mail that
said everything is alright. The refresh button is a sign of
desperation. Josh and Gordon are in search of their identity,
they are lost. While in search for an identity, they picked up the
identity of other. They pick up the identity of a hooligan and
doing immorality deeds. They started to experiments with
drinking in a bar as a minor, picking up women, and having
intercourse with them in their room. One day, Dave show up in
Josh front porch with news that might regard about Josh and
Gordon father wellbeing. Gordon and Josh quickly denial Dave
the ability to speak the news and kidnap him. They took their
frustration and anger out on him by beating him up senselessly.
Josh threatened to kill Dave by pushing him down the Hole of
Hell and only to be stop by his conscience. Being depressed,
Gordon and Josh rode down the road with wind-breaking speed.
Gordon and Josh accepted that their fathers wouldn’t be around
anymore and finally regain their true identity. They enlisted in
the military and become an honorable man where their father
would be proud of them.
I chose this piece because I can really related to the Josh and
Gordon in a sense of searching for identity as I step into
adulthood. This has been a big conflict to me in the past. I don’t
know what to do with my life and what I want to be when I
grow up. Being frustrated, I’ve done a lot of stupid things like
skipping classes and not doing jack in school. Barely passed
high school, I went to a community college and I was still
slacking off. During my first college year, my GPA standing is
1.65. One day, I found out my grandmother has passed away and
everything snap in focus. My thought are racing and a very
important question pop up in my mind, “What have I done in my
life to make her proud of me?” I started to set-up goals and
slowly achieving them one by one. Having achieved adequate

4. GPA, I was able to get in Mason and now in the Dean’s list. I
turn from someone who’s lost to a goal-driven man.
There are many conflict story out there but Benjamin Percy,
“Refresh, Refresh” story has done an ingenious job of telling it.
The story are thrived on characters so we are able to see closely
the characters and their conflicts. Benjamin Percy’s story
skillfully lay-out conflicts that drive Josh and Gordon into
destructive, lost, and immoral boy, however, once they resolves
those conflicts, they become goal-driven and honorable man. I
feel connected as I read this story because I also have a conflict
that will probably haunt me for the rest of my life. The conflict
has driven me into a lesser-being and with efforts I was able to
pull myself back up. Compromise are needed to resolve conflict.
Aung San Suu Kyi quoted, “If you want to bring an end to long-
standing conflict, you have to be prepared to compromise.”
Criminal Justice Exams One and Two
What has been the most recent innovation police agencies have
used in disseminating information to the public?
A) Crimestoppers
B) Amber Alerts
C) Department websites
D) Social networking websites
2.
In relation to people's judgments of the fairness of police
procedures, which of the following is one element police
officers need to consider in communicating with a person who is
the focus of police attention?
A) Nothing an officer does can satisfy the person in this
situation
B) The person wants to be allowed to explain his or her
situation
C) The person wants deferential treatment by the officer
D) The person wants preferential treatment
3.

5. Which of the following is a key factor in recognizing one's own
and others' biases and prejudices?
A) Communication
B) Managed confrontational mediation
C) Cultural immersion
D) Venting differences
4.
What is the term used to describe how new immigrants arriving
in the United States seek out others from their homeland and
settle in enclaves with those of similar heritage?
A) Assimilation
B) Cultural singularism
C) Acculturation
D) Cultural pluralism
5.
What is the central goal of community policing and community
partnership?
A) To establish a legal responsibility to each partner.
B) Improved accountability
C) Engagement
D) To establish and maintain trust.
6.
Victims of crime often suffer from ________.
A) suicide/homicidal intent
B) memory loss
C) posttraumatic stress disorder
D) posttraumatic psychoses
7.
Why do partnerships usually result in a more effective solution
to a problem?
A) Shared responsibilities, resources and goals
B) Mind-set and commitment
C) Politics
D) Empowerment of the police
8.
When giving interviews to the media, officers should speak in

6. soundbites with the most important information provided at
what point in the interview?
A) At the beginning, even if it means telling the story in
reverse, with the conclusion before the background information.
B) Repeated at the beginning, in the middle and again at the
end.
C) At the end for effect
D) In the middle, with some background given up front and
again at the end
9.
Consistent with the theme that good police officers
communicate well under stress, verbal judo (also referred to as
tactical civility) is a communication technique that advocates
police officers using which of the following when someone
confronts them with verbal attacks?
A) Remain civil, get tough if necessary and then return to
civility
B) Equal verbal response to that which is aimed at the officer
C) Be courteous but counter aggressive talk with equal force,
yet never retreat to avoid further aggressiveness.
D) Progressively increased vocal assertion.
10.
Research by Skogan and Frydl found that police are most likely
to obtain cooperation if they engage in ________ policing and,
in doing so, are attentive to the way they treat people, behaving
in ways that positively influence the degree to which people
perceive the procedures used as fair to people.
A) process-oriented
B) system-oriented
C) formula-oriented
D) procedure-oriented
11.
Which of the following is the current trend in disseminating
information to media outlets?
A) The trend is moving away from designated public
information officers (PIOs) to allowing any officer to talk with

7. the media
B) The trend is to have only the chief or high-ranking officers
do the interviews rather than a PIO.
C) The trend is for only supervisors on the scene to talk with
the media, since they have more direct information than a PIO
D) The trend is to have the PIO do the interviews and to
discourage or prohibit other officers from doing interviews
12.
What basic right(s) are victims of crime entitled to from the
criminal justice system?
A) Right to obtain certain information from the criminal justice
system.
B) Compensation.
C) Right to obtain certain information from the criminal justice
system, and right to be treated humanely within the system.
D) Right to be treated humanely within the system
13.
Community prosecutors focus not on specific cases but on
community issues and problems that often involve ________.
A) quality-of-life issues
B) civil suits
C) crisis counseling related to court intervention
D) disputes with police officers
14.
Which police strategy combines use of police with mental
health professionals combined with extensive training to safely
deescalate situations involving people with mental illness?
A) All of these choices
B) Crisis intervention teams
C) Mental health community intervention teams
D) Mobile psychology teams
15.
What occurs when several agencies and individuals commit to
work and contribute resources to obtain a common goal?
A) Collaboration occurs

8. B) Reduced commitment of each partner
C) Politics become involved
D) Stakeholders are emboldened
16.
What is one of the most common barriers, and the most serious,
to effective communication?
A) Failure to look the person in the eyes
B) Communication intent
C) Failure to listen
D) Ineffective nonverbal communication.
17.
If a police agency embraced Heath's theory of perceived
control, which of the following approaches would it take to
releasing news stories?
A) Less news about crime in the community is the best approach
because more crime news affects people's sense of safety and
security
B) Seek news coverage on arrests but downplay crimes where
no arrest is imminent
C) Give the media nothing except what they ask for
D) Police should encourage stories about crimes and criminals
being arrested because to feel secure people need to believe the
police have the upper hand on lawlessness.
18.
When the media cover isolated, high-profile cases with the
intent to influence operations of the criminal justice system and
even disposition of individual cases, this is referred to as
________.
A) news media echo effect
B) perceived control theory
C) stereotyping
D) CSI effect
19.
Which of the following steps need to be taken by a police
agency to attack bias and overcome racial or ethnic barriers
between police and community?

9. A) Implementing a zero tolerance policy
B) Training and education for both police and community
C) Developing outreach efforts to diverse communities to
reduce crime victimization.
D) All of these choices
20.
Which of the following should not be released to the media?
A) Summary of what occurred related to the crime.
B) Description of suspects still at large
C) Names of adults arrested
D) Criminal history of persons arrested