5) The Sacramento region used great power in the decade of the 1850s, in spite of its small resident population, when compared to San Francisco. The largest portion of the state's population lived in the "Sacramento District." Sacramento representatives strongly influenced the State's Constitutional Convention, landed the permanent State Capitol, and elected the State's first governor. Sacramento’s influence was in large part due to its growth in commerce, particularly that portion related to transportation such as railroads and steamboats, as well as wholesale merchants who supplied retailers throughout California and Nevada. Those large-scale merchants of Sacramento saw their success tied to better wagon roads and railroads. In this sentence from paragraph five, which phrase is the LEAST effective replacement for the phrase "used great power"?
A) applied great power B) exerted great power C) employed great power D) squandered great power
6) Excerpt from Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte I would have made a few comments, and requested a short history of the place from the surly owner; but his attitude at the door appeared to demand my speedy entrance, or complete departure, and I had no desire to aggravate his impatience previous to inspecting the penetralium. What does the term penetralium mean as used in this sentence from the passage?
A) inside B) openness C) outside D) privacy
7) Excerpt from The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro Fredrick Douglass To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. Which is the BEST definition of the word sham as it it used in the above sentence from the passage?
A) an honorary award B) a memorial service C) a fraud or mockery D) a historical event

5. It would not make sense to say that the Sacramento region squandered great power before proceeding to the explain how the region enjoyed immense influence at the time.

Applied is a good choice, although passive. Exerted is by far the best choice since it implies projection of power. Employed great power seems to be too strong for the occasion but also works to give the idea of power accumulation and use.

6. Penetralium in this case refers to the innermost parts of the house or its interior. Generally the term penetralium is associated with either a hidden room or the deepest most hidden parts of a building, but it can also be used to refer to the interior of a house that is particularly imposing, mysterious or unknown to the visitor.

7. A sham is associated with a false imitation of a person or event that carries a strong connotation of shame and mockery. A sham can be a disgraceful and unwarranted copy of something that is considered sacred or important.

In this context, Douglass explains how the recently freed slaves did not have the luxury of celebrating the freedom of their nation because of the social derision received by an important part of Americans.