Read the excerpt from Amy Tan’s essay “Mother Tongue.” I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mother’s “limited” English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect. Which phrase from the excerpt uses informal English?
Read the excerpt from "Mother Tongue." Lately, I’ve been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. Like others, I have described it to people as “broken” or “fractured” English. But I wince when I say that. It has always bothered me that I can think of no other way to describe it other than “broken,” as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness. How does Tan build a central idea of her story in the excerpt?
Read the excerpt from "Mother Tongue." Lately, I’ve been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. Like others, I have described it to people as “broken” or “fractured” English. But I wince when I say that. It has always bothered me that I can think of no other way to describe it other than “broken,” as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness. What can be inferred from the excerpt?
Read the passage from “The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica.” all wanting the comfort of spoken Spanish, to gaze upon the family portrait of her plain wide face, her ample bosom resting on her plump arms, her look of maternal interest as they speak to her and each other of their dreams and their disillusions— In this passage, the words “ample” and “plump” are
What is the speaker in "The Weary Blues" attempting to convey in his description of the scene?
Read the excerpt from Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “Death by Black Hole.” But there is more bad news. All parts of your body are moving toward the same spot—the black hole’s center. So while you’re getting ripped apart head to toe, you will also extrude through the fabric of space and time, like toothpaste squeezed through a tube. To all the words in the English language that describe ways to die (e.g., homicide, suicide, electrocution, suffocation, starvation) we add the term “spaghettification.” In this excerpt, Tyson conveys his complex ideas by
Read the excerpt from Neil deGrasse Tyson’s “Death by Black Hole.” If you stumbled upon a black hole and found yourself falling feet-first toward its center, then as you got closer, the black hole’s force of gravity would grow astronomically. Curiously, you would not feel this force at all because, like anything in free fall, you are weightless. What you do feel, however, is something far more sinister. While you fall, the black hole’s force of gravity at your two feet, they being closer to the black hole’s center, accelerates them faster than does the weaker force of gravity at your head. The difference between the two is known officially as the tidal force, which grows precipitously as you draw nearer to the black hole’s center. For Earth, and for most cosmic places, the tidal force across the length of your body is minuscule and goes unnoticed. But in your feet-first fall toward a black hole the tidal forces are all you notice. Which sentence from the excerpt best supports the idea that falling into a black hole would be excruciatingly painful?
Read the line from “Child of the Americas.” An immigrant and the daughter and granddaughter of immigrants The author’s word choice suggests a feeling of
Read this excerpt from part 5 of Zeitoun . It was a test, Zeitoun thinks. Who among us could deny that we were tested? But now look at us, he says. Every person is stronger now. Every person who was forgotten by God or country is now louder, more defiant, and more determined. They existed before, and they exist again, in the city of New Orleans and the United States of America. What assumption does the narrator make in this excerpt?
Read the excerpt from Their Eyes Were Watching God . To her way of thinking all these things set her aside from Negroes. That was why she sought out Janie to friend with . Janie’s coffee-and-cream complexion and her luxurious hair made Mrs. Turner forgive her for wearing overalls like the other women who worked in the fields. What does the phrase “to friend with” mean?
In Their Eyes Were Watching God , which best helps readers understand the author’s own cultural experiences?
Read the excerpt from “First Generation” of Dreaming in Cuban . He stops at the ocean’s edge, smiles almost shyly, as if he fears disturbing her, and stretches out a colossal hand. His blue eyes are like lasers in the night. The beams bounce off his fingernails, five hard blue shields. They scan the beach, illuminating shells and sleeping gulls, then focus on her. The porch turns blue, ultraviolet. Her hands, too, are blue. Celia squints through the light, which dulls her eyesight and blurs the palms on the shore. Which is an example of a hyperbole?
Read the excerpt from “First Generation” of Dreaming in Cuban , by Cristina Garcia. She considers the vagaries of sports, the happenstance of El Líder, a star pitcher in his youth, narrowly missing a baseball career in America. His wicked curveball attracted the major league scouts, and the Washington Senators were interested in signing him but changed their minds. Frustrated, El Líder went home, rested his pitching arm, and started a revolution in the mountains. Which best explains how Garcia’s word choice helps establish her voice in the excerpt?
Which excerpt from ”First Generation” of Dreaming in Cuban is the best example of magic realism?
Read this excerpt from “First Generation” of Dreaming in Cuban . Square by square, she searches the night skies for adversaries then scrutinizes the ocean, which is roiling with nine straight days of unseasonable April rains. What is the meaning of the underlined word?
Read the excerpt from Cristina Garcia’s Dreaming in Cuban . “Lourdes, I’m back,” Jorge del Pino greets his daughter forty days after she buried him with his Panama hat, his cigars, and a bouquet of violets in a cemetery on the border of Brooklyn and Queens. His words are warm and close as a breath. Lourdes turns, expecting to find her father at her shoulder but she sees only the dusk settling on the tops of the oak trees, the pink tinge of sliding darkness. “Don’t be afraid, mi hija . Just keep walking and I’ll explain,” Jorge del Pino tells his daughter. The sunset flares behind a row of brownstones linking them as if by a flaming ribbon. Which best identifies the magic realism found in the excerpt?
Read this stanza from Allen Ginsberg’s "A Supermarket in California." Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage? In this stanza, the speaker wishes
Read the excerpt from Jackie Robinson’s letter to President Eisenhower. I respectfully remind you sir, that we have been the most patient of all people. When you said we must have self-respect, I wondered how we could have self-respect and remain patient considering the treatment accorded to us through the years. The “treatment” that Robinson refers to is most likely the
Which statement best compares the structure of "Harlem" and "The Weary Blues"?
What is meant by the term “intelligent planet” as it is used in "The Intelligent Planet"?
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