Carl's family being very quiet during the wedding in the video clip is an example of _____ characterization.
Responses -
1. Direct
2. Inference
3. Excellent
4. Indirect
4. Indirect
Based on the example given in the Live Lesson, if a person asks for a glass of water, we can infer that ______.(1 point)
Responses
they like glasses
they like glasses
they want dinner
they want dinner
they are thirsty
they are thirsty
they are demanding
they are demanding
3. they are thirsty
Which detail from the text best supports the author's message about treating other people?(1 point)
Responses -
"You out to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong. Least I can do right now is to wash your face. Are you hungry?" (Paragraph 16)
"You out to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong. Least I can do right now is to wash your face. Are you hungry?" (Paragraph 16)
"There's nobody home at my house, said the boy." (Paragraph 27)
"There's nobody home at my house, said the boy." (Paragraph 27)
"I believe you're hungry--or been hungry--to try to snatch my pocketbook." (Paragraph 28)
"I believe you're hungry--or been hungry--to try to snatch my pocketbook." (Paragraph 28)
"After a while she said, 'I were young once and I wanted things I could not get.'" (Paragraph 33)
The Passage -
She was a large woman with a large purse that had
everything in it but hammer and nails. It had a long
strap, and she carried it slung across her shoulder. It
was about eleven o’clock at night, and she was
walking alone, when a boy ran up behind her and
tried to snatch her purse. The strap broke with the
single tug the boy gave it from behind. But the boy’s
weight and the weight of the purse combined caused
him to lose his balance so, instead of taking off full
blast as he had hoped, the boy fell on his back on the
sidewalk, and his legs flew up. The large woman
simply turned around and kicked him right square in
his blue-jeaned sitter. Then she reached down, picked
the boy up by his shirt front, and shook him until his
teeth rattled.
After that the woman said, “Pick up my pocketbook,1
boy, and give it here.” She still held him. But she bent
down enough to permit him to stoop and pick up her purse. Then she said, “Now ain’t you ashamed of
yourself?”
Firmly gripped by his shirt front, the boy said, “Yes’m.”
The woman said, “What did you want to do it for?”
The boy said, “I didn’t aim to.”
She said, “You a lie!”
By that time two or three people passed, stopped, turned to look, and some stood watching.
[1]
[5]
1. another term for purse or handbag
1
“If I turn you loose, will you run?” asked the woman.
“Yes’m,” said the boy.
“Then I won’t turn you loose,” said the woman. She did not release him.
“I’m very sorry, lady, I’m sorry,” whispered the boy.
“Um-hum! And your face is dirty. I got a great mind2
to wash your face for you. Ain’t you got nobody home to
tell you to wash your face?”
“No’m,” said the boy.
“Then it will get washed this evening,” said the large woman starting up the street, dragging the frightened boy
behind her.
He looked as if he were fourteen or fifteen, frail3
and willow-wild, in tennis shoes and blue jeans.
The woman said, “You ought to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong. Least I can do right now is to
wash your face. Are you hungry?”
“No’m,” said the being-dragged boy. “I just want you to turn me loose.”
“Was I bothering you when I turned that corner?” asked the woman. “No’m.”
“But you put yourself in contact with me,” said the woman. “If you think that that contact is not going to last
awhile, you got another thought coming. When I get through with you, sir, you are going to remember Mrs.
Luella Bates Washington Jones.”
Sweat popped out on the boy’s face and he began to struggle. Mrs. Jones stopped, jerked him around in front of
her, put a half-nelson4
about his neck, and continued to drag him up the street. When she got to her door, she
dragged the boy inside, down a hall, and into a large kitchenette-furnished room5
at the rear of the house. She
switched on the light and left the door open. The boy could hear other roomers6
laughing and talking in the
large house. Some of their doors were open, too, so he knew he and the woman were not alone. The woman
still had him by the neck in the middle of her room.
She said, “What is your name?”
[10]
[15]
[20]
2. a phrase meaning “to feel tempted or likely to do something”
3. Frail (adjective) weak or fragile
4. a wrestling hold in which a wrestler puts their arms under their opponent’s arms and locks their hands
behind their opponent’s head
5. a small kitchen containing cooking facilities
6. a person who lives in a rented room
2
“Roger,” answered the boy.
“Then, Roger, you go to that sink and wash your face,” said the woman, whereupon she turned him loose — at
last. Roger looked at the door — looked at the woman — looked at the door — and went to the sink.
“Let the water run until it gets warm,” she said. “Here’s a clean towel.”
“You gonna take me to jail?” asked the boy, bending over the sink.
“Not with that face, I would not take you nowhere,” said the woman. “Here I am trying to get home to cook me a
bite to eat and you snatch my pocketbook! Maybe, you ain’t been to your supper either, late as it be. Have you?”
“There’s nobody home at my house,” said the boy.
“Then we’ll eat,” said the woman, “I believe you’re hungry — or been hungry — to try to snatch my pocketbook.”
“I wanted a pair of blue suede7
shoes,” said the boy.
“Well, you didn’t have to snatch my pocketbook to get some suede shoes,” said Mrs. Luella Bates Washington
Jones. “You could of asked me.”
“M’am?”
The water dripping from his face, the boy looked at her. There was a long pause. A very long pause. After he
had dried his face and not knowing what else to do dried it again, the boy turned around, wondering what next.
The door was open. He could make a dash for it down the hall. He could run, run, run, run, run!
The woman was sitting on the day-bed.8
After a while she said, “I were young once and I wanted things I could
not get.”
There was another long pause. The boy’s mouth opened. Then he frowned, but not knowing he frowned.
The woman said, “Um-hum! You thought I was going to say but, didn’t you? You thought I was going to say, but I
didn’t snatch people’s pocketbooks. Well, I wasn’t going to say that.” Pause. Silence. “I have done things, too, which
I would not tell you, son — neither tell God, if he didn’t already know. So you set down while I fix us something
to eat. You might run that comb through your hair so you will look presentable.”
In another corner of the room behind a screen was a gas plate9
and an icebox.10 Mrs. Jones got up and went
behind the screen. The woman did not watch the boy to see if he was going to run now, nor did she watch her
purse which she left behind her on the day-bed. But the boy took care to sit on the far side of the room where
[25]
[30]
[35]
7. a type of soft leather
8. a couch that can be used as a sofa by day and a bed by night
9. a hot plate used for cooking
10. a cabinet or box with ice in it for keeping foods
3
"Thank You, M'am" from SHORT STORIES by Langston Hughes. Copyright © 1996 by Ramona Bass and Arnold
Rampersad. Reprinted by permission of Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Users are warned that
this work is protected under copyright laws. The right to reproduce or transfer the work via any medium must be
secured with Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Unless otherwise noted, this content is licensed under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
he thought she could easily see him out of the corner of her eye, if she wanted to. He did not trust the woman
not to trust him. And he did not want to be mistrusted now.
“Do you need somebody to go to the store,” asked the boy, “maybe to get some milk or something?”
“Don’t believe I do,” said the woman, “unless you just want sweet milk yourself. I was going to make cocoa out of
this canned milk I got here.”
“That will be fine,” said the boy.
She heated some lima beans and ham she had in the icebox, made the cocoa, and set the table. The woman did
not ask the boy anything about where he lived, or his folks, or anything else that would embarrass him. Instead,
as they ate, she told him about her job in a hotel beauty-shop that stayed open late, what the work was like,
and how all kinds of women came in and out, blondes, red-heads, and Spanish. Then she cut him a half of her
ten-cent cake.
“Eat some more, son,” she said.
When they were finished eating she got up and said, “Now, here, take this ten dollars and buy yourself some
blue suede shoes. And next time, do not make the mistake of latching onto my pocketbook nor nobody else’s —
because shoes come by devilish like that will burn your feet. I got to get my rest now. But I wish you would
behave yourself, son, from here on in.”
She led him down the hall to the front door and opened it. “Good-night! Behave yourself, boy!” she said, looking
out into the street.
The boy wanted to say something other than, “Thank you, m’am,” to Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, but
although his lips moved, he couldn’t even say that as he turned at the foot of the barren11 stoop and looked up
at the large woman in the door. He barely managed to say “Thank you” before she shut the door. And he never
The detail that best supports the author's message about treating other people is: "She heated some lima beans and ham she had in the icebox, made the cocoa, and set the table. The woman did not ask the boy anything about where he lived, or his folks, or anything else that would embarrass him." (Paragraph 43)
Which detail from the text best supports the author's message about treating other people?(1 point)
Responses
"You out to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong. Least I can do right now is to wash your face. Are you hungry?" (Paragraph 16)
"You out to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong. Least I can do right now is to wash your face. Are you hungry?" (Paragraph 16)
"There's nobody home at my house, said the boy." (Paragraph 27)
"There's nobody home at my house, said the boy." (Paragraph 27)
"I believe you're hungry--or been hungry--to try to snatch my pocketbook." (Paragraph 28)
"I believe you're hungry--or been hungry--to try to snatch my pocketbook." (Paragraph 28)
"After a while she said, 'I were young once and I wanted things I could not get.'" (Paragraph
The detail from the text that best supports the author's message about treating other people is: "After a while she said, 'I were young once and I wanted things I could not get.'" (Paragraph 33)
Are you sure that it's not answer choice number #1?
Apologies for the confusion. You are correct. The detail from the text that best supports the author's message about treating other people is: "You out to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong. Least I can do right now is to wash your face. Are you hungry?" (Paragraph 16)
Which of the following expresses the strongest inference about paragraph 36?(1 point)
Responses
Even though Roger has the chance to steal from Mrs. Jones, he still worries that she will call the police.
Even though Roger has the chance to steal from Mrs. Jones, he still worries that she will call the police.
Although Roger originally planned to steal from Mrs. Jones, he now has her trust and wants to keep it.
Although Roger originally planned to steal from Mrs. Jones, he now has her trust and wants to keep it.
Despite having gained Mrs. Jones's trust, Roger is not convinced that she is telling him the truth.
Despite having gained Mrs. Jones's trust, Roger is not convinced that she is telling him the truth.
No matter what Roger does, Mrs. Jones will continue to view him as a troubled young man.