UNIT TEST REVIEW AMERICAN LIT EXAM QUESTIONS WITH
COMPLETE SOLUTIONS ANSWERED
Which is the best definition of the term "magic realism"?
a narrative genre characterized by its use of fantastic or mythic elements in otherwise
realistic fiction
According to the speaker's perspective in the poem "The Latin Deli: An Ars
Poetica," what is poetic about the deli?
the emotional attachment to things that are reminders of heritage
Read the two excerpts about Pilar from Dreaming in Cuban.
Excerpt 1: They called me brujita, little witch. I stared at them, tried to make them
go away.
Excerpt 2: Another woman, an elderly mulatta, claimed that her hair was falling
out from the menacing stares the baby gave her.
Which statement is the best synthesis for the two excerpts?
Inexplicable events are sometimes interpreted as supernatural experiences in Cuban
culture.
Read the excerpt from "Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry."
In other cases, the censoring has been direct and brutal. On February 28, 1981
the morning newspaper carried a story about the burning of my novel, Bless Me,
Ultima. The book was banned from high school classes in Bloomfield, New
Mexico, and a school board member was quoted as saying: "We took the books
out and personally saw that they were burned."
Which type of rhetoric used most shows how the powerful use censorship to
silence the powerless?
, an appeal to logic
Read the excerpt from Cristina Garcia's Dreaming in Cuban.
The sunset flares behind a row of brownstones, linking them as if by a flaming
ribbon. Lourdes massages her eyes and begins walking with legs that feel held
by splints.
"I'm glad to see you, Lourdes. Thank you for everything, hija, the hat, the cigars.
You buried me like an Egyptian king, with all my valuables!" Jorge del Pino
laughs.
Lourdes perceives the faint scent of her father's cigar . . .
"Where are you, Papi?"
The street is vacant, as if a force has absorbed all living things. Even the trees
seem more shadow than substance.
"Nearby," her father says, serious now.
The author uses magic realism by
revealing Jorge's appreciation for his valued burial gifts.
Read the excerpt from "The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica."
plain ham and cheese
that would cost less at the A&P, but it would not satisfy
the hunger of the fragile old man lost in the folds
of his winter coat, who brings her lists of items
that he reads to her like poetry, or the others,
whose needs she must divine, conjuring up products
from places that now exist only in their hearts—
COMPLETE SOLUTIONS ANSWERED
Which is the best definition of the term "magic realism"?
a narrative genre characterized by its use of fantastic or mythic elements in otherwise
realistic fiction
According to the speaker's perspective in the poem "The Latin Deli: An Ars
Poetica," what is poetic about the deli?
the emotional attachment to things that are reminders of heritage
Read the two excerpts about Pilar from Dreaming in Cuban.
Excerpt 1: They called me brujita, little witch. I stared at them, tried to make them
go away.
Excerpt 2: Another woman, an elderly mulatta, claimed that her hair was falling
out from the menacing stares the baby gave her.
Which statement is the best synthesis for the two excerpts?
Inexplicable events are sometimes interpreted as supernatural experiences in Cuban
culture.
Read the excerpt from "Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry."
In other cases, the censoring has been direct and brutal. On February 28, 1981
the morning newspaper carried a story about the burning of my novel, Bless Me,
Ultima. The book was banned from high school classes in Bloomfield, New
Mexico, and a school board member was quoted as saying: "We took the books
out and personally saw that they were burned."
Which type of rhetoric used most shows how the powerful use censorship to
silence the powerless?
, an appeal to logic
Read the excerpt from Cristina Garcia's Dreaming in Cuban.
The sunset flares behind a row of brownstones, linking them as if by a flaming
ribbon. Lourdes massages her eyes and begins walking with legs that feel held
by splints.
"I'm glad to see you, Lourdes. Thank you for everything, hija, the hat, the cigars.
You buried me like an Egyptian king, with all my valuables!" Jorge del Pino
laughs.
Lourdes perceives the faint scent of her father's cigar . . .
"Where are you, Papi?"
The street is vacant, as if a force has absorbed all living things. Even the trees
seem more shadow than substance.
"Nearby," her father says, serious now.
The author uses magic realism by
revealing Jorge's appreciation for his valued burial gifts.
Read the excerpt from "The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica."
plain ham and cheese
that would cost less at the A&P, but it would not satisfy
the hunger of the fragile old man lost in the folds
of his winter coat, who brings her lists of items
that he reads to her like poetry, or the others,
whose needs she must divine, conjuring up products
from places that now exist only in their hearts—
