Characters, Conflict, And Idioms In "Daughter Of Invention" By Julia Alvarez

Read the excerpt from "Daughter of Invention". But Laura's inventing days were over just as Yoyo's were starting up with her school-wide success. Rather than the rolling suitcase everyone else in the family remembers, Yoyo thinks of the speech her mother wrote as her last invention. It was as if, after that, her mother had passed on to Yoyo her pencil and pad and said, "Okay, Cuquita, here's the buck. You give it a shot." Which context clue provides the best hint for the meaning of the underlined idiom in this excerpt?

To understand a character, what variations in language should the reader look for? Check all that apply.

Read the excerpt from "Daughter of Invention". "Ay, Cuquita." That was her communal pet name for whoever was in her favor. "Cuquita, when I make a million, buy you your very own typewriter." (Yoyo had been nagging her mother for one just like the one her father had bought to do his order forms at home.) "Gravy on the turkey" was what she called it when someone was buttering her up. She buttered and poured. "I'll hire you your very own typist." Based on this excerpt, what can be concluded about Laura?

Read the excerpt from "Daughter of Invention". "Maybe not. Maybe, just maybe, there's something they've missed that's important. With patience and calm, even a burro can climb a palm." This last was one of her many Dominican sayings she had imported into her scrambled English. Which English idiom has the same meaning as the one underlined in this excerpt?

Which excerpt from "Daughter of Invention" contains language that best reveals that Carlos is still tied to his Dominican origin?

Which excerpt from "Daughter of Invention" contains language that best represents the preservation of Dominican values?

Which of Laura's misquoted idioms from "Daughter of Invention" is intended to mean that it makes no difference to her?

Read the excerpt from "Daughter of Invention". "What ees wrrrong with her eh-speech?" Carlos wagged his head at her. His anger was always more frightening in his broken English. As if he had mutilated the language in his fury—and now there was nothing to stand between them and his raw, dumb anger. "What is wrong? I will tell you what is wrong. It show no gratitude. It is boastful. I celebrate myself? The best student learns to destroy the teacher?" He mocked Yoyo's plagiarized words. "That is insubordinate. It is improper. It is disrespecting of her teachers—" In his anger he had forgotten his fear of lurking spies: each wrong he voiced was a decibel higher than the last outrage. Finally, he shouted at Yoyo, "As your father, I forbid you to make that eh-speech!" What does Carlos' language reveal about his character?

Read the excerpt from "Daughter of Invention". But now, Carlos was truly furious. It was bad enough that his daughter was rebelling, but here was his own wife joining forces with her. Soon he would be surrounded by a houseful of independent American women. He too leapt from the bed, throwing off his covers. The Spanish newspapers flew across the room. He snatched the speech out of Yoyo's hands, held it before the girl's wide eyes, a vengeful, mad look in his own, and then once, twice, three, four, countless times, he tore the speech into shreds. In this excerpt, Carlos is mostly in conflict with

Read the excerpt from "Daughter of Invention". "Thanks, thanks a lot, Mom!" Yoyo stormed out of that room and into her own. Her daughters never called her Mom except when they wanted her to feel how much she had failed them in this country. She was a good enough Mami, fussing and scolding and giving advice, but a terrible girlfriend parent, a real failure of a Mom. Based on this excerpt, what can be concluded about the daughters?