Read the excerpt from "Mother Tongue."Those tests were constructed around items like fill-in-the-blank sentence completion, such as “Even though Tom was ______, Mary thought he was _____.” And the correct answer always seemed to be the most bland combinations of thoughts, for example, “Even though Tom was foolish, Mary thought he was ridiculous.” Well, according to my mother, there were very few limitations as to what Tom could have been and what Mary might have thought of him. So I never did well on tests like that. Which information from the excerpt best supports the inference that achievement tests ignore imagination as an element of language ability?
Read the excerpt from Leslie Marmon Silko’s story "The Man to Send Rain Clouds."Leon knocked at the old carved door with its symbols of the Lamb. While he waited he looked up at the twin bells from the king of Spain with the last sunlight pouring around them in their tower.What does the image of the Lamb above the priest’s door symbolize?
Read the excerpt from "Mother Tongue."I am a writer. And by that definition, I am someone who has always loved language. I am fascinated by language in daily life. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language—the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth. Language is the tool of my trade. And I use them all—all the Englishes I grew up with.How does Tan build a central idea of her story in the excerpt?
Read the following passage, which is modeled after an encyclopedia entry about tortillas.A tortilla is a round flatbread that appears in most Mexican dishes, including tacos, enchiladas, and tostadas. Tortillas are made with cornmeal or sometimes wheat flour. Traditionally, the corn or wheat grains are ground on a stone. Next, the meal from these grains is formed into small pieces of dough and patted into thin circles by hand. Finally, the tortilla is baked on a griddle. Today, tortilla dough is usually mixed by machine, flattened into shape, and passed on a conveyor belt to cook over a flame. Tortillas can be purchased at most major grocery stores.Which best describes the purpose of this passage?
Read the excerpt from Leslie Marmon Silko’s story "The Man to Send Rain Clouds."The sun was approaching the long mesa where it disappeared during the winter. What type of figurative language is included in this passage?
Read the excerpt from “Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry.”For me, reading has always been a path toward liberation and fulfillment. To learn to read is to start down the road of liberation, a road which should be accessible to everyone. No one has the right to keep you from reading, and yet that is what is happening in many areas in this country today. There are those who think they know best what we should read. These censors are at work in all areas of our daily lives.Which best describes how Anaya uses rhetorical appeal to convince readers that censors want to limit what people can read?
Read the excerpt from “Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry.”In other cases, the censoring has been direct and brutal. On February 28, 1981 the morning newspaper carried a story about the burning of my novel, Bless Me, Ultima. The book was banned from high school classes in Bloomfield, New Mexico, and a school board member was quoted as saying: “We took the books out and personally saw that they were burned.”Which type of rhetoric used most shows how the powerful use censorship to silence the powerless?
Read the two excerpts about Pilar from Dreaming in Cuban.Excerpt 1: They called me brujita, little witch. I stared at them, tried to make them go away.Excerpt 2: Another woman, an elderly mulatta, claimed that her hair was falling out from the menacing stares the baby gave her. Which statement is the best synthesis for the two excerpts?
Which is the best definition of the term “magic realism”?
Read the excerpt from “The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica.”plain ham and cheesethat would cost less at the A&P, but it would not satisfythe hunger of the fragile old man lost in the foldsof his winter coat, who brings her lists of items that he reads to her like poetry, or the others,whose needs she must divine, conjuring up productsfrom places that now exist only in their hearts—closed ports she must trade with.Which best describes how the author’s word choice affects the tone of the poem?
Did you find these answers helpful?