1. Test 1 Review

2. The bonesetter’s daughter by amy tan
Summary: A little girl, nicknamed “Doggie”, wakes up in a small, simple dwelling with her aunt whom she calls “Precious Auntie”. The reader soon realizes Precious Auntie cannot speak due to a burn that melted her mouth—the origin of which we never learn— but this does not keep the two from communicating. Precious Auntie and her niece have many vivid conversations, some which the young girl tells to others, and some which they keep like secrets between themselves. While other family members are disgusted by Auntie’s face, the little girl loves and accepts Auntie and her unique and creative way of storytelling.

3. 1: What detail from the story helps you infer that the narrator realized that other people were unkind to precious auntie?
Correct: B—In the story, we see that Mother once said, “Ai-ya, seeing her, even a demon would leap out of his skin.” This is clear, direct evidence that other people don’t treat Auntie as well as her niece does.
Incorrect: A—while it is true that the narrator is the only one who can understand Auntie, and this may suggest she is not liked well enough for other family members to take the time to learn to speak to her, this evidence is not as good as letter B
Incorrect: C—The fact that Auntie’s inability to taste different flavors is known to the narrator is completely irrelevant; we cannot learn other people are unkind to Auntie this way
Incorrect: D—Again, the fact that Auntie may be the Bonesetter’s Daughter (I say may because this may just be another one of Auntie’s stories) is irrelevant; this does not help us understand that other people dislike her.

4. 2: Why does the narrator ask precious auntie for a story?
Correct: C—it seems that the narrator asks Auntie for a story simply because she likes to hear them. The narrator states, “I laughed and clapped my hands, liking this made-up story best.”
Incorrect: A—It is true that seemingly no one else listens to Auntie; in fact, the narrator has to talk for her, she says. But the narrator does not seem to ask for stories because she pities Auntie and wants to give her someone to talk to. She does it because Auntie tells good stories.
Incorrect: B—We get no evidence whatsoever from the text that the narrator tells Auntie’s stories at school.
Incorrect: D—We know that the narrator wishes Mother would accept Auntie, but that’s not why she asks Auntie for a story. To get Mother to like Auntie more, the narrator suggests to Auntie to wear a comb in her hair.

5. 3: Evidence for #2
Correct: C—This is the answer choice that shows that Auntie’s stories make the narrator happy, which is why she asked for them.
Incorrect: A, B, and D—none of these indicate why the narrator asks Auntie for stories

6. 4: based on the passage, which of the following character traits does precious auntie display?
Correct: B—Everything about Auntie is creative, from the stories she tells, to the way she tells them. Her disfigurement has forced her to get creative, so much so that she’s created her own language and taught it to her niece without ever saying a word.
Incorrect: A—While some of Auntie’s stories are silly, “immature” is not the best word to describer her.
Incorrect: C—Half of Auntie’s face is melted; she is not beautiful. If you chose this because she’s “beautiful on the inside”, that may be true, but we see her beauty most through her creativity, making A a better answer choice, still.
Incorrect: D—Auntie has her own made-up language through which she tells stories that make the narrator laugh and clap; she is not boring.

7. 5: Evidence for #4
We omitted this question because there were two answers that could be right.

8. 6: summary
Correct: D—This answer choice includes both main characters, the setting, and the major events.
Incorrect: A—This answer is not as detailed as it should be. It completely leaves out that Auntie is special in the way that she communicates.
Incorrect: B—This answer is missing the names of the main characters, the setting, and the main events.
Incorrect: C—This answer is also missing the names of the main characters, the setting, and the main events. It also mischaracterizes the narrator as “gullible” when we have evidence to the contrary; the narrator clearly knows that Auntie’s stories are “made up” (Tan 2).

9. 7: how does the author develop the theme of acceptance throughout the passage?
Correct: A—The fact that the narrator is able to look past Auntie’s deformity and see the value in her shows the theme of acceptance.
Incorrect: B—Auntie’s affliction (her burned face) is only part of what builds the theme; we would not have the theme of acceptance if the little girl did not also love her for who she is.
Incorrect: C—Auntie’s storytelling is, again, only part of what builds the theme. Without the little girl’s acceptance, we do not get proof that there is value in people beyond looks.
Incorrect: D—This answer choice is not even true; only the little girl loves Precious Auntie.

10. 8: write a paragraph which analyzes how the author uses precious auntie’s character traits to develop a theme.
In order to make a 4 on this writing, you needed to ACE your paragraph.
The answer needed to not only contain Precious Auntie’s character traits, you had to also say what the theme was that these traits helped us see.
Not all of Auntie’s traits were important. If you wrote about her beautiful hair or her skills as the narrator’s nursemaid, you were missing the bigger traits of creativity and physical deformity.
Not all themes were right. Acceptance, “not judging a book by its cover”, or “it’s what’s on the inside that counts” were all good.
You also had to be sure not to start writing an analysis and then accidentally slip into writing a summary. If your response just became you telling what happened in the story, you lost points.
After your quote, you needed a sentence—preferably with the word “because” that showed why the character traits you chose actually developed the theme you chose. You could not just say what the quote meant; you had to say how it showed what you were trying to prove.

11. Actual student response!
8: example
Actual student response!
The author uses Precious Auntie’s character traits of creativity and kindness to develop a theme of acceptance. The author, Amy Tan, develops the theme by showing how the narrator accepts Precious Auntie because of her kindness and character, not her looks. The author states, “I didn’t think she was ugly, not in the way the others in our family did” (Tan 1). This quote shows that the narrator accepted Precious Auntie when no one else did, and did not judge Precious Auntie based on looks, but on her personality, therefore developing a theme of acceptance.

12. Actual student response!
8: Example
Actual student response!
The author uses Precious Auntie’s character traits to develop the theme of acceptance throughout the story. In the story, the narrator states how her mother thought how “even a demon would leap out of his skin” due to Precious Auntie’s physical character traits (Tan 1). This highlights Precious Auntie’s physical traits since she was burned. However, despite Precious Auntie’s appearance, the narrator sees past this and accepts Precious Auntie because of who she is and not what she looks like. The narrator states, “I didn’t think she was ugly, not they way others in our family did” (Tan 1). This establishes the theme of acceptance by demonstrating how the narrator accepts Precious Auntie despite her character traits.

13. Actual student response!
8: Example
Actual student response!
In the excerpt, Precious Auntie is described as a caring and creative storyteller, despite the fact that many do not favor her due to her inability to talk and half-melted facial features. These character traits help develop a theme of acceptance when the narrator lovingly interacts with Precious Auntie. The author states, “I didn’t think she was ugly, not in the way others in our family did” (Tan 1). Precious Auntie’s character traits develop the theme of acceptance because the narrator still loves and embraces her, regardless of the way she looks and communicates unlike the rest of their family.

14. 9: which sentence best summarizes the information in paragraphs 5 and 6?
Paragraphs 5 and 6 said that many researchers in the nineteenth century studied the skulls of Basque people to see if that would indicate where the Basques descended from.
Correct: A—This sentence not only tells the important detail that is was skulls that were being studied, it also tells why they were being studied: to create theories about Basque origins.
Incorrect: B—very close answer, but this choice lacks the fact that skulls were studied, which was one of the key details.
Incorrect: C—What one researcher concluded, while important, is only one key detail, too specific for a summary of both passages.
Incorrect: D—Neither passage suggests that skulls turned out to be the “key to understanding the Basques”, so this isn’t even accurate.

15. 10: what can you infer from reading this passage?
We omitted this question because there were no right answers.

16. 11: choose two pieces of evidence from the passage which support that research has concluded that basque people are physically different from others
Both C and D are correct. C is about their skulls, a physical trait, and D is about their build, another physical trait.
Incorrect: A—if you misread, you may have chosen this one because it had the word “skulls” in it, but the choice is actually about how researcher think it’s the skirts they wore, not the skulls in their heads, that could tell us who they were. Skirts are not a physical trait.
Incorrect: B—this choice was about their language; language is not a physical trait

17. 12: which of the following central ideas does the author develop throughout the passage?
Correct: B—the entire article is about trying to figure out where the Basques came from and what they are like. That makes their “origins and characteristics” the central idea.
Incorrect: A– The fact that we don’t know much about the Basques’ origins and characteristics is what is mysterious, not the people themselves. We don’t know enough about the Basques to know if they, as a people, were typically mysterious in the way they acted.
Incorrect: C—While their language was discussed, it was not the central idea of the entire passage. The title of the article was “The Basque History of the World”, not “The Basque Language”.
Incorrect: D—While they are described as interesting, we are never given them impression that the Basque people and artifacts are important to society.

18. 13: evidence for #12
This question said “which does NOT support”—if you missed the “not” you may have missed this question.
Correct: D—This is the only answer choice which does not describe some research being done regarding the Basques. It’s just a rhetorical question the author used to bring up his next point.
Incorrect: A, B, and C—These all discuss origins are characteristics of the Basques that were discovered through research.