Unit Test Review American Lit

Which is the best definition of the term "magic realism"?

According to the speaker's perspective in the poem "The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica," what is poetic about the deli?

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?

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 excerpt from Cristina Garcia's Dreaming in Cuban. The sunset flares behind a row of brownstones, linking them as if by a flaming ribbon. Lourdes massages her eyes and begins walking with legs that feel held by splints. "I'm glad to see you, Lourdes. Thank you for everything, hija, the hat, the cigars. You buried me like an Egyptian king, with all my valuables!" Jorge del Pino laughs. Lourdes perceives the faint scent of her father's cigar . . . "Where are you, Papi?" The street is vacant, as if a force has absorbed all living things. Even the trees seem more shadow than substance. "Nearby," her father says, serious now. The author uses magic realism by

Read the excerpt from "The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica." plain ham and cheese that would cost less at the A&P, but it would not satisfy the hunger of the fragile old man lost in the folds of 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 products from 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?

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 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?

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?

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 "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 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 following quote from Leslie Marmon Silko's story "The Man to Send Rain Clouds" "Send us rain clouds, Grandfather." They laid the bundle in the back of the pickup and covered it with a heavy tarp before they started back to the pueblo. This quote is located early in the narrative. What does it reveal about Leon?

Read the passage from "Child of the Americas." I speak English with passion: it's the tongue of my consciousness, a flashing knife blade of crystal, my tool, my craft. How does the imagery create a visual of the speaker's use of English?

Read the following 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?