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10th Grade Reading Learning Check 5

Last updated over 3 years ago
16 questions
Literary
Fish Cheeks

I fell in love with the minister's son the winter I turned fourteen. He was not Chinese. For Chrsitmas I prayed for this blond-haired boy, Robert, and a slim new American nose.

When I found out that my parents had invited the minister's
5 family over for Christmas Eve dinner, and I cried. What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? WHat would he think of our noisy Chinese relatives, who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet
10 potatoes but Chinese food?

On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: Tofu, which looked like stack 15 wedges of rubbery white sponges. A bowl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires.

And then they arrived--the minister's family and all my relatives in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled Christmas
20 packages. Robert grunted hello, and I pretended he was not worthy of existence.

Dinner threw me deeper into despair. My relatives licked the ends of their chopsticks and reached across the table, dipping them into the dozen or so plates of food. Robert and his
25 family waited patiently for platters to be passed to them. My relatives murmured with pleasure when my mother brought out the whole steamed fish. Robert grimaced. Then my father poked his chopsticks just below the fish eye and plucked out the soft meat. "Amy, your favorite," he said,
30 offering me the tender fish cheek. I wanted to disappear.

At the end of the meal, my father leaned back and belched loudly, thanking my mother for her fine cooking. "It's a polite Chinese custom to show you are satisfied," explained my father to our astonished guests. Robert was looking down at
35 his plate with a reddened face. The minister managed to muster up a quiet burp. I was stunned into silence for the rest of the night.

After everyone had gone, my mother said to me, "You want to be the same as American girls on the outside." She handed
40 me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. "But inside you will always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame."

And even though I didn't agree with her then, I knew that she understood how much I had suffered during the evening's
45 dinner. It wasn't until a many years later--long after I had gotten over my crush on Robert--that I was able to fully appreciate her lesson and the true purpose behind our particular menu. For Christmas Eve that year, she had chosen all my favorite foods.


Adapted from Amy Tan, "Fish Cheeks". 1989.
Required
1

What was the narrator's greatest concern when she learned the minister's family was coming for dinner?

Required
1

What is the effect of the repeated italics in the second paragraph (lines 4-10)?

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1

Why does the narrator use figurative language to describe tofu and squid in the underlined portionof lines 14-17?

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1

Why does the narrator say she "wanted to disappear" (line 30)?

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1

What is the main focus of the fifth and sixth paragraphs (lines 22-37)?

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1

What does the underlined portion of lines 35-36 suggest about the minister?

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1

What literary device does the author use in the underlined portion of lines 35-36?

Required
2

Which words best describes Robert's reaction to the loud after-dinner belch in lines 22-30? Select TWO answers.

Required
1

Which term best describes the narrator?

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1

What is the best restatement of the mother's advice in lines 38-42?

Required
1

The narrator has many concerns about the holiday dinner her family hosts. Much of her concern is focused on how the minster and his family will respond to her family's holiday traditions. Using specific examples from the passage, describe three different things that the narrator worries about. Then, explain the effect that those worries have on the narrator's mood.

Informational
President John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address, Januray 20, 1961

Man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe. We dare not forget today that
5 we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans---born in this century, proud of our ancient heritage---and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undowing of those
10 human rights to which this Nation has always been committed. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we
15 pledge---and more.

So let us begin anew---remembering on both side that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate. Let us explore what problems unite us
20 instead of belaboring those problems which divide us. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.

All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be 25 finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin. In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than in mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. WIll you join in that historic effort?

30 And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you---ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man. Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world,
35 ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love.


Adapted from the Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy, 1961.
Required
1

What is the speaker's purpose when he says "All this will not be finished in the first 100 days" (line 24).

Required
1

What does "the torch" represent in the underlined portion of lines 6-7?

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1

What is the best explanation for the speaker's repetition of "Let us" in the second paragraph?

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1

In the underlined portion of lines 4-5, the speaker appeals to what quality in his audience?

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1

The underlined portion of lines 24-27 which of the following?