2. short-response prompt (15 points)
read this excerpt from "fish cheeks" by amy tan in which tan recounts the
christmas eve dinner:
and then they arrived – the minister's family and all my relatives
in a clamor of doorbells and rumpled christmas 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 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, offering me the tender fish cheek. i
wanted to disappear.
at the end of the meal my father leaned back and belched loudly,
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 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.
how does this excerpt illustrate the theme of cultural conflict that persists
throughout the story? be sure to use specific details from the text to support your
answer.

The victorian era is known as the age of

If you’re looking for a place to visit, i recommend yosemite national park. visiting yosemite has been a high point of my life. can you imagine waking up, inhaling the pine-scented air, and watching the pink-tinted mountains reflect the sunrise? later, as you hike, you’ll encounter meadows strewn with rainbows of wildflowers and lakes in astonishing shades of blue. the tone of the passage is effective because it defines yosemite for the reader. the author entertain the reader. instructs the reader on how to enjoy yosemite. supports the author’s attempt to persuade.

In another country by ernest hemingway (excerpts) excerpt 1 "in the fall the war was always there, but we did not go to it any more. it was cold in the fall in milan and the dark came very early. then the electric lights came on, and it was pleasant along the streets looking in the windows. there was much game hanging outside the shops, and the snow powdered in the fur of the foxes and the wind blew their tails. the deer hung stiff and heavy and empty, and small birds blew in the wind and the wind turned their feathers. it was a cold fall and the wind came down from the mountains." excerpt 2 "the people hated us because we were officers, and from a wine-shop someone called out, "a basso gli ufficiali! " as we passed. another boy who walked with us sometimes and made us five wore a black silk handkerchief across his face because he had no nose then and his face was to be rebuilt. he had gone out to the front from the military academy and been wounded within an hour after he had gone into the front line for the first time. they rebuilt his face, but he came from a very old family and they could never get the nose exactly right. he went to south america and worked in a bank. but this was a long time ago, and then we did not any of us know how it was going to be afterward. we only knew then that there was always the war, but that we were not going to it any more." 19 select the correct answer. what important fact about the wounded soldiers is reflected by the repetition of the bolded sentences in the excerpts from "in another country" by ernest hemingway? a. it establishes the irony that, although the wounded soldiers have physically left the warfront, the war continues to haunt them psychologically. b. it shows the gradual loss of hope and growing depression of the wounded soldiers and their need for distractions. c. it establishes the wounded soldiers’ determination to shun war and disobey military commands to return to the front after they recover. d. it shows the wounded soldiers’ sadness and disappointment at the lack of gratitude from the people they risked their lives to protect. e. it shows the wounded soldiers’ belief that the war would never end, even as thousands of soldiers were killed or wounded and sent to hospitals. reset next