unit 4 review

Which of the following excerpts from Sandra Cisneros's story "Mericans" best reveals a blending of cultures?

"'Hey, Michele, Keeks. You guys want gum?' 'But you speak English!' 'Yeah,' my brother says, 'we're Mericans.'"

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?

Anaya speaks about everyone's right to read what they choose in order to appeal to the reader's sense of fairness.

Read the following excerpt from "Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry" by Rudolfo A. Anaya. If we leave out our tortillas—and by that I mean the language, history, cultural values and themes of our literature—the very culture we're portraying will die. Based on this excerpt, which of the following statements best expresses Anaya's point of view?

D. Mexican American writers need to preserve their heritage by continuing to write about it.

Read the excerpts from "Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry" and "Speaking Arabic." My friend had concluded that if he took his language and culture out of his poetry, he stood a better chance of receiving a fellowship. He took out his native language, the poetic patois of our reality, the rich mixture of Spanish, English, pachuco and street talk which we know so well. In other words, he took the tortillas out of his poetry, which is to say he took the soul out of his poetry. At a neighborhood fair in Texas, somewhere between the German Oom-pah Sausage Stand and the Mexican Gorditas booth, I overheard a young man say to his friend, "I wish I had a heritage. Sometimes I feel—so lonely for one." And the tall American trees were dangling their thick branches right down over his head. Which best states how the structures of both excerpts support ideas about cultural diversity?

Each incorporates non-English words

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?

Tan references her work with language to build the idea that all forms of English are purposeful and meaningful.

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?

Tan's mother could think of several ways to answer a question like the one described in the excerpt.

Read the excerpt from "Mother Tongue." Yet some of my friends tell me they understand 50 percent of what my mother says. Some say they understand 80 to 90 percent. Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese. But to me, my mother's English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It's my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world. Which best summarizes the central idea of the excerpt?

Nonstandard forms of English are valid, complete languages.

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?

a. to inform audiences about the production and types of tortillas

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 most shows how powerful people use censorship to silence the powerless?

appeal to logic

12 Read the excerpt from Frederick Douglass's speech "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival. Which of the following best describes Douglass's word choice in this excerpt?

clever

Read the following excerpt from Sandra Cisneros's story "Mericans." There are those walking to church on their knees. Some with fat rags tied around their legs and others with pillows, one to kneel on, and one to flop ahead. There are women with black shawls crossing and uncrossing themselves. There are armies of penitents carrying banners and flowered arches while musicians play tinny trumpets and tinny drums. What cultural element is revealed in this excerpt?

religion

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. What is the purpose of this text?

to inform readers based on Tan's childhood experience