Making Inferences to Determine Central Ideas: Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue"
Question 7 of 26 • GA-Literature and Composition III
Read the excerpt from "Mother Tongue."And here you would be presented with a list of four possible pairs, one of which showed the same kind of relationship: red is to stoplight, bus is to arrival, chills is to fever, yawn is to boring. Well, I could never think that way. I knew what the tests were asking, but I could not block out of my mind the images already created by the first pair, “sunset is to nightfall”—and I would see a burst of colors against a darkening sky, the moon rising, the lowering of a curtain of stars.How does Tan build a central idea of her story in the excerpt?
Answer
A
Tan gives an example of a test question to support the idea that more efforts must be made in the home to expose children to standard English.
B
Tan relates a story about taking an achievement test to support the idea that English curricula must be structured more like math curricula.
C
Tan discusses achievement tests to support the idea that language cannot be separated from the personal meanings and experiences attached to it.
D
Tan describes her experience with achievement tests to support the idea that published authors are most qualified to write test questions for students.