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 engage the reader?
They employ statistical evidence.
They employ figurative language.
They employ supporting quotes.
They employ an authoritative tone.

B. They employ figurative language

Explanation:

In the first excerpt it says "He took the tortillas out of his poetry" which is figurative language making it more human.

In the second a young man says "I wish I had a heritage. Sometimes I fell - so lonely for one" Which is another example of figurative language followed by dramatic irony of a american tree hanging unknown to him right over him.

question:

it's when i'm weary of considerations, and life is too much like a pathless wood where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs broken across it, and one eye is weeping from a twig's having lashed across it open

answer to question #1: the simile that occurs in the text given (lines 43-47) is: ''life is too much like a pathless ''

explanation: a simile is a comparison of one thing with another thing and it is used to make a vivid description. it uses like or as. in the text, we can understand that the person is feeling weary of considerations and because of this, the person compares ''life'' to ''a pathless wood''.

answer to question #2: in this text we can understand that the word frost could mean anger, annoyance and bitterness, due to the fact that the person is stating that he/she is feeling weary of considerations and compares life to a pathless wood.

explanation: the word frost means coldness and something covered by ice crystals but looking at the comparison made in this text, we can understand that the word frost could mean anger, annoyance and bitterness, due to the fact that the person is stating that he/she is feeling weary of considerations therefore he/she compares life to a pathless wood.

the anwser is went creeping down the river again, across the wide lonely marshes to the sea.

i longed to go with them out into the world to seek my fortune in foreign lands—africa, india, china and peru!

and, dreaming of the lands i had never seen, i'd sit on there, watching till they were out of sight.