问答题
Read the following passage and answer the questions:
This text below is taken from Alice Walker"s short story " Everyday Use". Please answer the following questions according to the excerpt:
Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: she will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eying her sister with a mixture of envy and awe. *
She thinks her sister has held life always in the palm of one hand, that " no" is a word the world never learned to say to her.
*
You"ve never doubt seen those TV shows where... mother and child embrace and smile into each other"s faces... Sometimes I dream a dream in which Dee and I are suddenly brought together on a TV program of this sort...
In real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. In the winter I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day. I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man. My fat keeps me hot in zero weather. I can work outside all day, breaking ice to get water for washing; I can eat pork liver cooked over the open fire minutes after it comes steaming from the hog. One winter I knocked a bull calf straight in the brain between the eyes with a sledge hammer and had the meat hung up to chill before nightfall. But of course all this does not show on television. I"m the way my daughter would want me to be: a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked barley pancake. My hair glistens in the hot bright lights. Jonny Carson has much to do to keep up with my quick and witty tongue.
I never had an education myself. After second grade the school was closed down. Don"t ask me why; *
in 1927 colored asked fewer questions than they do now.
* Sometimes Maggie reads to me. She stumbles along good-naturedly but can"t see well. ...She will marry John Thomas and then I"ll be free to sit here and I guess just sing church songs to myself. Although I never was a good singer. Never could carry a tune. I was always better at a man"s job.
Notes:
1. Maggie and Dee are the daughters of the narrator. "her sister" refers to Dee.
2. Jonny Carson is a very popular TV host in 1960s in the States.
问答题
Paraphrase the underlined sentence between the asterisks in Paragraph 1.(2 points)
【正确答案】正确答案：She thinks her sister has a firm control of her own life.
【答案解析】
问答题
What kind of person is "I" according to the excerpt?(2 points)
【正确答案】正确答案：The narrator describes herself as a big-boned woman with rough hands toughened by manual labor. Poor and uneducated, she was not given the opportunity to break out of her rural life. But she is a loving and strong mother, and always cares about her daughters.
【答案解析】
问答题
What writing skills are used to construct the narrator"s image? What artistic effect does this kind of narration achieve?(4 points)
【正确答案】正确答案：The colorful language, specialized diction and sharp contrast are used to construct Mama"s unique phrases and observation, giving this narration a sense of realism; the elliptical and short, simple sentences are used to show us the image of an uneducated black woman. Her detailed description of all kinds of labors is compared with her brief fantasy about reuniting with her daughter Dee on a talk show. This contrast shows she is a practical and tough woman with few illusions.
【答案解析】
问答题
Comment on the underlined sentence between the asterisks in the last paragraph and explain what social movement influenced the ethnic Americans when the story happened?(3 points)
【正确答案】正确答案：The underlined sentence reveals the change of self-awareness to the African Americans: compared with the past, they are now more concerned about their identity, rights and more entitled to question the unfair. This story took place during the late 1960s and early 1970s. In that period, there was a movement—Black Power Movement by African Americans, which paid stress on the consciousness, rights, and the culture of black people. The movement aimed at eliminating the racial discrimination and apartheid. The African Americans learn more about their African roots—the African culture which was separated by time, space and racial suppress in this movement, and also reject to admit or even to desert the American culture.