Read the passage from A Doll’s House . Helmer: Because such an atmosphere of lies infects and poisons the whole life of a home. Each breath the children take in such a house is full of the germs of evil. Nora: [coming nearer him] Are you sure of that? Helmer: My dear, I have often seen it in the course of my life as a lawyer. Almost everyone who has gone to the bad early in life has had a deceitful mother. Nora: Why do you only say—mother? Helmer: It seems most commonly to be the mother's influence, though naturally a bad father's would have the same result. Every lawyer is familiar with the fact. This Krogstad, now, has been persistently poisoning his own children with lies and dissimulation; that is why I say he has lost all moral character. [Holds out his hands to her.] That is why my sweet little Nora must promise me not to plead his cause. Give me your hand on it. Come, come, what is this? Give me your hand. There now, that's settled. I assure you it would be quite impossible for me to work with him; I literally feel physically ill when I am in the company of such people. How does the author use the character of Helmer to develop the idea of gender inequality?
Read the passage from A Doll’s House. Helmer: That is like a woman! But seriously, Nora, you know what I think about that. No debt, no borrowing. There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt. We two have kept bravely on the straight road so far, and we will go on the same way for the short time longer that there need be any struggle. Nora: [moving towards the stove]. As you please, Torvald. Helmer: [following her]. Come, come, my little skylark must not droop her wings. What is this! Is my little squirrel out of temper? [Taking out his purse.] Nora, what do you think I have got here? Nora: [turning around quickly]. Money! Helmer: There you are. [Gives her some money.] Do you think I don't know what a lot is wanted for housekeeping at Christmas-time? Nora: [counting]. Ten shillings—a pound—two pounds! Thank you, thank you, Torvald; that will keep me going for a long time. Helmer: Indeed it must. How does the author use the character of Torvald Helmer to explore a social issue?
Read the passage from Amy Tan's "Rules of the Game." One day, after we left a shop I said under my breath, "I wish you wouldn’t do that, telling everybody I’m your daughter.” My mother stopped walking. Crowds of people with heavy bags pushed past us on the sidewalk, bumping into first one shoulder, then another. "Aiii-ya. So shame be with mother?” She grasped my hand even tighter as she glared at me. I looked down. "It’s not that, it’s just so obvious. It’s just so embarrassing.” "Embarrass you be my daughter?” Her voice was cracking with anger. "That’s not what I meant. That’s not what I said.” "What you say?” I knew it was a mistake to say anything more, but I heard my voice speaking, "Why do you have to use me to show off? If you want to show off, then why don’t you learn to play chess?” My mother’s eyes turned into dangerous black slits. She had no words for me, just sharp silence. I felt the wind rushing around my hot ears. I jerked my hand out of my mother’s tight grasp and spun around, knocking into an old woman. Her bag of groceries spilled to the ground. "Aii-ya! Stupid girl!” my mother and the woman cried. Oranges and tin cans careened down the sidewalk. As my mother stooped to help the old woman pick up the escaping food, I took off. What conflict occurs in the passage?
Read the passage from Amy Tan's "Rules of the Game.” My parents made many concessions to allow me to practice. One time I complained that the bedroom I shared was so noisy that I couldn’t think. Thereafter, my brothers slept in a bed in the living room facing the street. I said I couldn’t finish my rice; my head didn’t work right when my stomach was too full. I left the table with half-finished bowls and nobody complained. But there was one duty I couldn’t avoid. I had to accompany my mother on Saturday market days when I had no tournament to play. My mother would proudly walk with me, visiting many shops, buying very little. "This my daughter Wave-ly Jong,” she said to whoever looked her way. One day after we left a shop I said under my breath, "I wish you wouldn’t do that, telling everybody I’m your daughter.” My mother stopped walking. Crowds of people with heavy bags pushed past us on the sidewalk, bumping into first one shoulder, then another. Which statement best explains the motivation for the narrator’s mother to introduce her daughter to everyone they meet?
Read the excerpt from act 2 of A Doll’s House. Nurse: Oh well, young children easily get accustomed to anything. Nora: Do you think so? Do you think they would forget their mother if she went away altogether? Nurse: Good heavens!—went away altogether? Nora: Nurse, I want you to tell me something I have often wondered about—how could you have the heart to put your own child out among strangers? Nurse: I was obliged to, if I wanted to be little Nora's Nurse. Nora: Yes, but how could you be willing to do it? Nurse: What, when I was going to get such a good place by it? A poor girl who has got into trouble should be glad to. Besides, that wicked man didn't do a single thing for me. What evidence from the text best supports the theme that society can put mothers in impossible situations?
Read the passage from A Doll’s House. Nora: Nurse, I want you to tell me something I have often wondered about—how could you have the heart to put your own child out among strangers? Nurse: I was obliged to, if I wanted to be little Nora's Nurse. Nora: Yes, but how could you be willing to do it? Nurse: What, when I was going to get such a good place by it? A poor girl who has got into trouble should be glad to. Besides, that wicked man didn't do a single thing for me. Nora: But I suppose your daughter has quite forgotten you. Nurse: No, indeed she hasn't. She wrote to me when she was confirmed, and when she was married. How does the author use the character of the nurse to develop the social issue of gender inequality?
Which excerpts from "Two Kinds” show a connection between conflict and culture? Choose two correct answers.
Which excerpt from the poem "Girl Powdering Her Neck” by Cathy Song is an example of a simile?
Read the lines from "Girl Powdering Her Neck” by Cathy Song, then look at the artwork by Kitagawa Utamaro. Her hair is black with hints of red, the color of seaweed spread over rocks. Morning begins the ritual wheel of the body, the application of translucent skins. She practices pleasure: the pressure of three fingertips applying powder. Fingerprints of pollen some other hand will trace. The peach-dyed kimono patterned with maple leaves drifting across the silk, falls from right to left in a diagonal, revealing the nape of her neck and the curve of a shoulder like the slope of a hill set deep in snow in a country of huge white solemn birds. Her face appears in the mirror, a reflection in a winter pond, rising to meet itself. Open image in full-screen view Which statement best compares the use of imagery and color in the poem and artwork to portray the woman?
Read the excerpt from act 3 of A Doll’s House. Nora: Maybe. But you neither think nor talk like the man I could bind myself to. As soon as your fear was over—and it was not fear for what threatened me, but for what might happen to you—when the whole thing was past, as far as you were concerned it was exactly as if nothing at all had happened. Exactly as before, I was your little skylark, your doll, which you would in future treat with doubly gentle care, because it was so brittle and fragile. [Getting up.] Torvald—it was then it dawned upon me that for eight years I had been living here with a strange man, and had borne him three children—. Oh, I can't bear to think of it! I could tear myself into little bits! How does the passage demonstrate a view that was commonly held during the 1800s?
Read the excerpt from act 3 of A Doll’s House. Nora: Alas, Torvald, you are not the man to educate me into being a proper wife for you. Helmer: And you can say that! Nora: And I—how am I fitted to bring up the children? Helmer: Nora! Nora: Didn't you say so yourself a little while ago—that you dare not trust me to bring them up? Helmer: In a moment of anger! Why do you pay any heed to that? Nora: Indeed, you were perfectly right. I am not fit for the task. There is another task I must undertake first. I must try and educate myself—you are not the man to help me in that. I must do that for myself. And that is why I am going to leave you now. Helmer [springing up] : What do you say? Nora: I must stand quite alone, if I am to understand myself and everything about me. It is for that reason that I cannot remain with you any longer. What evidence from the text best supports the theme that it is important to have independence?
Read the excerpt from act 3 of A Doll's House . Helmer: How unreasonable and how ungrateful you are, Nora! Have you not been happy here? Nora: No, I have never been happy. I thought I was, but it has never really been so. Helmer: Not—not happy! Nora: No, only merry. And you have always been so kind to me. But our home has been nothing but a playroom. I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I was papa's doll-child; and here the children have been my dolls. I thought it great fun when you played with me, just as they thought it great fun when I played with them. That is what our marriage has been, Torvald. What prediction does the text best support?
Read the excerpt from act 3 of A Doll’s House. Nora: In all these eight years—longer than that—from the very beginning of our acquaintance, we have never exchanged a word on any serious subject. Helmer: Was it likely that I would be continually and forever telling you about worries that you could not help me to bear? Nora: I am not speaking about business matters. I say that we have never sat down in earnest together to try and get at the bottom of anything. Helmer: But, dearest Nora, would it have been any good to you? Nora: That is just it; you have never understood me. I have been greatly wronged, Torvald—first by papa and then by you. How does the conflict in the text best connect to the views of society in the late 1800s?
Read the excerpt from act 1 of A Doll’s House. Mrs. Linde: Yes, but your father gave you the necessary funds. Nora: [smiling] Yes, that is what Torvald and all the others think, but— Mrs. Linde: But— Nora: Papa didn't give us a shilling. It was I who procured the money. Mrs. Linde: You? All that large sum? Nora: Two hundred and fifty pounds. What do you think of that? Mrs. Linde: But, Nora, how could you possibly do it? Did you win a prize in the Lottery? Nora: [contemptuously] In the Lottery? There would have been no credit in that. Mrs. Linde: But where did you get it from, then? Nora: [humming and smiling with an air of mystery]. Hm, hm! Aha! Mrs. Linde: Because you couldn't have borrowed it. Nora: Couldn't I? Why not? Mrs. Linde: No, a wife cannot borrow without her husband's consent. Nora: [tossing her head] Oh, if it is a wife who has any head for business—a wife who has the wit to be a little bit clever— How does this excerpt best develop the theme that society places limits on the roles of women?
Which scenario is an example of extrinsic motivation?
Which scenario is an example of intrinsic motivation?
What are the characteristics of fixed poetry? Choose three correct answers.
Read the line from Rita Dove’s poem "Sonnet in Primary Colors,” then study Frida Kahlo’s painting Self-Portrait with Monkey and Parrot . the thumbprint searing her immutable brow. Open image in full-screen view How does this line relate to the artwork?
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