Read the excerpts from “take the tortillas out of your poetry” and “speaking arabic.” 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? a. they employ statistical evidence. b. they employ figurative language. c. they employ supporting quotes. d. they employ an authoritative tone.

The correct answer is B. They employ figurative language

Explanation:

Both of the excerpts presented from "Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry" and "Speaking Arabic" deal with heritage. In the case of the first excerpt the author describes the way in which a friend decided to take out heritage from poetry and for doing this the author uses language such as "he took the tortillas out of his poetry, which is to say he took the soul out of his poetry" that implies the author uses words in a different way than conventional use and provides words with a different meaning that their literal meaning which is known as figurative language.

Similarly, in the second excerpt, the author uses figurative language to refer to the same subject by stating "he tall American trees were dangling their thick branches" to represent in a figurative and abstract way the idea of heritage. This means, in both cases, the authors used figurative language to state the main idea and engage the reader. Therefore, the two excerpts employ figurative language to engage the reader.

source text: from the sketch here given it will be seen, that our good grandmothers differed considerably in their ideas of a fine figure, from their scantily dressed descendants of the present day. a fine lady, in those times, waddled under more clothes even on a fair summer's day, than would have clad the whole bevy of a modern ball room. nor were they the less admired by the gentlemen in consequence thereof. on the contrary, the greatness of a lover's passion seemed to increase in proportion to the magnitude of its object—and a voluminous damsel, arrayed in a dozen of petticoats, was declared by a low-dutch sonnetteer of the province, to be radiant as a sunflower, and luxuriant as a full blown cabbage. certain it is, that in those days, the heart of a lover could not contain more than one lady at a time; whereas the heart of a modern gallant has often room enough to accommodate half a dozen - - the reason of which i conclude to be, either that the hearts of the gentlemen have grown larger, or the persons of the ladies smaller — this however is a question for physiologists to determine. add punctuation to the following excerpt. writing under the name of diedrich knickerbocker washington irving aimed his potent satire at as diverse topics as political rivals such as thomas jefferson to the very ideal of looking back on the past affectionately: a fine lady, in those times, waddled under more clothes even on a fair summer's day, than would have clad the whole bevy of a modern ball room. a voluminous damsel, arrayed in a dozen of petticoats, was declared by a low-dutch sonnetteer of the province, to be radiant as a sunflower, and luxuriant as a full blown cabbage. in those days, the heart of a lover could not contain more than one lady at a time; whereas the heart of a modern gallant has often room enough to accommodate half a dozen

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