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9th 10th Pre-assessment: Red Cranes, Fireflies (Parcc, SLO)

Last updated over 5 years ago
13 questions
Today you will read and analyze passages from two short stories. As you read these texts, you will gather information and answer questions about each text individually and about the relationship between the texts so you can write an analytical essay.

Read the passage from "Red Cranes," a short story written by United States writer Jacey Choy. Then answer questions 1 through 3.

from "Red Cranes"
by Jacey Choy

1 Jiro removed his hat and the cloth band tied around his forehead. Bending over, he untied his shoes, then set them in the shoe rack next to the door. He opened the door and shuffled over to the sink to wash his hands. Shaded by the aged cherry trees,the small house remained cool. Jiro wiped his hands on a towel and sat at the low table.

2 "Father," said Mie as she sat beside him, "how is the work going today? Do you think the plants will be ready to harvest in time? Do you have enough men to help you?"

3 Jiro turned to Mie and smiled. "Yes, yes, Mie, I think we will have a good crop this time. Kinshi and the others have been working hard . . . we can always use more help, but we're doing fine. I was going to tell you that I thought I heard some cranes early this morning, before the sun came up. I tried to find them, but I wasn't sure where their calls were coming from. They're so loud and resonant, so it's sometimes hard to tell. I was going to wake you, but I decided it wouldn't be worth it, especially if it wasn't a red crane."

4 "The red cranes! Father! Please wake me next time, even if you're not sure! I don't mind getting up that early, anyway." Red cranes were rare around this part of Japan, but Mie longed to see one. She imagined herself on the back of a red crane, flying high in the air.

5 "Oh, Mie," said Yuki, "all your talk of red cranes. Dreams, just dreams." Yuki picked up her chopsticks and shook her head.

6 "I know I sound foolish, but I'm so excited to see a red crane. I've been reading about them in one of your books, Mother,and Ijust wish Icould actually see and hear one. Did you know that their nests usually contain only two eggs and can be found on the ground in marshy areas? And, most cranes are usually brown, gray,or white, so the red crane is unusual with its red feathers." Mie's eyes flashed with excitement as she talked.

7 "Well, Mie, if I hear any cranes, no matter what, I will come and get you." Jiro gazed at his daughter and then stood up from the table.

8 Mie and Yuki finished clearing the dishes of rice, namasu or pickled vegetables, and miso soup. Jiro had returned to the fields, leaving Mie and Yuki to spend some time in the house. Mie wanted to read her poetry anthology,the Man'yoshu, and practice her calligraphy. Because she lived in the country, she was unable to go to school like the girls who lived in Edo. They were closer to the priests and temples, where they could be taught how to read and write. But Yuki had learned how to read and write as a girl, and she worked hard with Mie every day to teach her what she knew. It was Mie's favorite part of her day, not only to learn how to read and write, but to interact so intimately with Yuki. She admired Yuki, a strong woman and a gentle mother.

9 Yuki walked over to Mie, drying her hands on a soft cloth. "Mother, what were your dreams when you were a girl? I know life was difficult, but did you ever think how things might be different for you? Did you dream you would be a wife and mother? Or did you have other dreams as well?"

10 Yuki turned to Mie. Dreams are for youth, she thought to herself. She had so many dreams when she was growing up, most that she dared not share with anyone. Life, for her, held so few choices. What should she say? She worried that if she told her the truth it might influence Mie in the wrong way. Women had a hard life if they chose not to marry and be a devoted wife and mother­ and she wanted Mie to have a comfortable life.

11"Well, when I was your age I had many dreams, as children do. One of my dreams was to fall in love and get married. I was lucky that one of my dreams came true . . . and that I met your father, who is a wonderful husband and father." Yuki worried that she didn't sound strong enough, sure enough about the path that her life took.

12 "Of course, Mother. But I mean, did you ever dream that you would be a famous puppeteer, or a rich merchant that traveled the oceans, or maybe a poet whose poems were written in the Man'yoshu? How about an artist that painted beautiful landscapes?"

13 Yuki laughed. "You have some wild ideas for a young girl. I suggest that you concentrate on your own reading and writing for now. You can work on your dreams later." Yuki shook her head and walked toward the kitchen. She felt like her own mother, discouraging Mie from carrying around her dreams. She wanted her daughter to have her dreams yet she didn't want her to grow up with unrealistic ideas and goals.

14 Mie continued reading, but when she heard her mother leave the room, Mie glanced up and stared out the window. She watched her father working in the fields, and the mountain, Fujisan, far in the background. Fujisan, a volcano said to have been created during an earthquake hundreds of years ago, was a sacred place filled with magic-or so many who had been there said. Mie dreamed of visiting Fujisan one day and climbing to its summit. She imagined herself at the peak and, like a red crane, flying into the sky. With these thoughts a peacefulness, a serenity, traveled through her. She closed her eyes and imagined the plum blossoms in the spring, their delicate fragrance. She imagined the Japanese maple trees in the autumn, deep purple and brown penetrating the landscape. She saw the snow in winter, covering the ground, the trees, and the bridge in the crisp air. Mie felt her heart soar and her mind drift.

From: Jacey Choy,"Red Cranes," from Fiction on a Stick (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2008). Reprinted with permission.
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1. Part A
What is the meaning of resonant as it is used in paragraph 3?

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Part B
Which quotation from paragraph 3 helps clarify the meaning of resonant?

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2. Part A
How are the details about Mie's interest in the red cranes important to the development of a central theme in the passage?

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Part B
Which paragraph focused on the red cranes provides the best support for the answer to Part A?

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3. Part A
Which phrase describes the attitude of Mie's father, Jiro, toward Mie?

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Part B
Which sentence best supports the answer to Part A?

Read the passage from "The Firefly Hunt," a short story by Japanese writer Jun'ichiro Tanizaki (1886-1965). Then answer questions 4 through 6.

from "The Firefly Hunt"
by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki

1It was a strange house, of course, but it was probably less the house than sheer exhaustion that kept Sachiko awake. She had risen early, she had been rocked and jolted by train and automobile through the heat of the day, and in the evening she had chased over the fields with the children, two or three miles it must have been. . . . She knew, though, that the firefly hunt would be pleasant to remember. . .. She had seen firefly hunts only on the puppet stage, Miyuki and Komazawa murmuring of love as they sailed down the River Uji; and indeed one should properly put on a long-sleeved kimono, a smart
summer print, and run across the evening fields with the wind at one's sleeves, lightly taking up a firefly here and there from under one's fan. Sachiko was entranced with the picture. But a firefly hunt was, in fact, a good deal different. If you are going to play in the fields you had better change your clothes, they were told, and four muslin kimonos-prepared especially for them?-were laid out, each with a different pattern, as became their several ages. Not quite the way it looked in the pictures, laughed one of the sisters. It was almost dark, however, and it hardly mattered what they had on. They could still see each other's faces when they left the house, but by the time they reached the river
it was only short of pitch dark. . . . A river it was called; actually it was no more than a ditch through the paddies, a little wider perhaps than most ditches, with plumes of grass bending over it from either bank and almost closing off the surface. A bridge was still dimly visible a hundred yards or so ahead. . . .

2 They turned off their flashlights and approached in silence; fireflies dislike noise and light. But even at the edge of the river there were no fireflies. Perhaps they aren't out tonight, someone whispered. No, there are plenty of them-come over here. Down into the grasses on the bank, and there, in that delicate moment before the last light goes, were fireflies, gliding out over the water in low arcs like the sweep of the grasses . . . And on down the river, and on and on, were fireflies, lines of them wavering out from this bank and the other and back again . . . sketching their uncertain lines of light down close to the surface of the water, hidden from outside by the grasses. . . .In that last moment of light, with the darkness creeping up from the water and the moving plumes of grass still faintly outlined, there, far, far, far as the river stretched, an infinite number of little lines in two long lines on either side, quiet, unearthly. Sachiko could see it all even now, here inside with her eyes closed. . . . Surely it was the impressive moment of the evening, the moment that made the firefly hunt worthwhile. . . . A firefly hunt has indeed none of the radiance of a cherry blossom party. Dark, dreamy, rather . . . might one say? Perhaps something of the child's world, the world of the fairy story in it. . . . Something not to be painted but to be set to music, the mood of it taken up on a piano or a koto. . . . And while she lay with her eyes closed, the fireflies, out there along the river, all through the night, were flashing on and off, silent, numberless. Sachiko felt a wild, romantic surge, as though she were joining them there, soaring and dipping along the surface of the water, cutting her own uncertain line of light. . . .

From: "The Firefly Hunt" by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki from Modern Japanese Literature, edited by Donald Keene, copyright © 1956 by Grove PressInc. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, nc. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited.
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4. Part A
In paragraph 1,what is the meaning of the word entranced as it is used in the sentence "Sachiko was entranced with the picture"?

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Part B
Which two quotations from later in the passage further emphasize the meaning of entranced?

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5. Part A
Which option best captures a central theme of the passage?

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Part B
Which quotation is most relevant to a central theme of the passage?

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6. Part A
Throughout the passage, the author builds suspense. Which structural choice contributes most directly to suspense?

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Part B
Which quotation from the passage best supports the answer to Part A?

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Refer to the passage from "Red Cranes" and the passage from "The Firefly Hunt." Then answer question 7.

7. You have read two passages, one from Jacey Choy's "Red Cranes" and one from Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's "The Firefly Hunt." Though Mie and Sachiko, the main characters in the passages, have certain similarities, the authors develop their characters in very different ways.

Write an essay in which you analyze the different approaches the authors take to develop these characters.In your essay, be sure to discuss how each author makes use of such elements as:
• the main characters' interactions with other characters,
• the presentation of the main characters' thoughts, and
• the strong feelings each character experiences at the end of each passage.

Use specific evidence from both passages to support your analysis.

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