2006 Passage

At the end of the twelfth paragraph (“For a moment . . . falling”), Matilda’s mother’s memory of how she didn’t know whether to look at an airplane or a coconut recalls her:

• inability to make decisions

• fanciful imagination

• unstable relationship with her daughter

• disorientated perspective

• conflicting memories of the past

At the beginning of the passage (“I sat . . . shoulders”), the narrator can most accurately be described as

• a hostile invader

• a spiteful child

• a reluctant worker

• a dutiful daughter

• an enthusiastic questioner

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.1

CCSS.RL.11-12.3

In the fourteenth paragraph, Matilda’s mother’s disclosure that “I didn’t know if I was looking at a bad man or a man who loved me” provokes what response from her daughter?

• Matilda concludes that her mother is lying

• Matilda recognizes her mother's weakness

• Matilda feels even more confusion about her past

• Matilda is compelled to distract her mother with humor

• Matilda craves more information about her father

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.1

CCSS.RL.11-12.3

CCSS.RL.11-12.6

In the context of the passage as a whole, the narrator is best described as a reader who

• fantasizes about escaping her boring day-to-day existence

• is passionate about sharing the stories she reads with others

• feels superior to others who have not been exposed to literature

• uses the stories she reads to help contextualize her own experience

• struggles to understand the complicated plots in difficult texts

In the fourth paragraph, Matilda, as the narrator, makes the remark that “A new silence was about to open up between us,” which exposes the origin of a distance between mother and daughter caused by

• her mother’s apology for Matilda’s father’s behavior

• her mother’s condemnation of Matilda’s father

• her mother’s back being turned toward the stream

• Matilda’s intention to aggravate her mother

• Matilda’s resentment at being denied the truth

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.1

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.11-12.3

CCSS.RL.11-12.6

In the second paragraph, the question with which the narrator confronts her mother (“I took . . . my dad”) reveals which of the following about their contrasting values?

• Matilda’s anger is tempered by her mother’s sense of humor.

• Her mother’s leniency is at odds with Matilda’s more objective point of view.

• Matilda’s nostalgia conflicts with her mother’s indifference.

• Her mother’s lies are contrasted with Matilda’s honest communication.

• Matilda’s maturity differs from her mother’s lack of responsibility.

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.1

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.11-12.3

CCSS.RL.11-12.6

In the sixteenth paragraph (“I miss . . . one”), the specific details in her observations about sea horses and parrot fish suggest which of the following about the motives of Matilda’s mother?

• She seeks to shift attention back to the river.

• She wants to end an awkward silence.

• She perceives Matilda’s keen attention.

• She is embarrassed about divulging a secret.

• She intends to defuse Matilda’s anger.

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.1

CCSS.RL.11-12.6

The presentation of setting in the first paragraph of the passage establishes an atmosphere of

• interpersonal tension

• pastoral beauty

• dreary idleness

• dull repetition

• hopeful anticipation

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.3

CCSS.RL.11-12.4

In the last two paragraphs of the passage, the narrator’s shift to discussing the contrast between her mother and Miss Havisham conveys a

• conflict between fiction and autobiography

• resolution to her argument with her mother

• failure in the narrator’s search for her father

• retreat from adulthood into childhood

• sign of the narrator’s perceptive insight

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.1

CCSS.RL.11-12.2

CCSS.RL.11-12.3

CCSS.RL.11-12.6