"the family" from run with the horsemen
ferrol sams

the family was poor. it was "poor but proud." the confused boy grew up thinking one should be proud of being poor. one of the in-laws slipped around occasionally and made liquor. he had plenty of cash, did not read books, and was tolerated but not admired. a cousin had surrendered to the boll weevil, moved out of the county, and bought coca-cola stock. he was rich, but there was unspoken disdain for him because he had left the land.

the grandparents told horror stories of having to boil dirt from under the smokehouse to retrieve salt after the yankees had been on the land. they had learned to eat a weed called poke salad as a means of survival in those days, a custom that they passed on as a springtime ritual of communion to their descendants. things apparently got a little better for awhile, but then the great depression hit the south like aftershock from the earthquake of reconstruction, and the children knew poverty firsthand. they also, however, knew pride. no one in the county had any money to spend, and there was a security of blood that transcended the possession of material things. when one is convinced that one is to the manor born, the actual physical condition of the manor itself is of negligible importance.
ead the passage on the left to answer the following questions:

25) which theme is not present in this passage?
a) family should always be loyal to each other, regardless of the situation.
b) a family needs to communicate freely about its concerns among its members.
c) when it comes to matters of family, money does not trump one's loyalty to blood.
d) one's pride does not need to be dependent on the amount of money or land one owns.

26)
which best describes the author's point of view toward the family?
a) the author mocks the family's ridiculous pride with a bit of humor, but most sarcastic bite.
b) the author is critical of the family's misplaced pride given its poverty-stricken circumstances.
c) the author is deeply sympathetic with the family's suffering and oppression in a poverty-filled land.
d) the author admires the family's pluck, courage, and pride even when no external circumstances justify it.

27) what does the phrase "to the manor born" mean, as seen in the final paragraph of this selection?
a) it refers to the wealth and financial abundance that young southerners were brought into since birth.
b) it refers to the ideas of dignity and self-respect that young southerners had experienced as customary.
c) it refers to the size of the plantation each southern person came into possessing upon reaching maturity.
d) it refers to the great depression and the influence it had on all southerners during this time.

28) which best describes the resolution of this passage?
a) the passage ends with an increasingly sense of doom and tragedy.
b) the passage ends with sharp, biting commentary about the family's wealth.
c) the passage ends with an unhappy acceptance of the family's wretched fate.
d) the passage ends with a comic twist, praising and gently mocking the family's pride.

answer all or i will report