The Writing on the Wall and With a Little Help From My Friends.

According to “The Writing on the Wall,” which of the following were reasons for detaining an immigrant on Angel Island during the early 1900s? Choose two of the following.

• The immigrant was Chinese.

• The immigrant was a criminal.

• The immigrant was a woman.

• The immigrant's papers were incorrect.

According to “The Writing on the Wall,” who wrote the poems etched into the walls of Angel Island?

• educated men among the Chinese immigrants

• well-known poets among the Chinese immigrants

• bored Chinese Americans waiting to travel back to China

• angry Chinese politicians working for change at Angel Island

According to “The Writing on the Wall,” which of the following factors made it difficult for people to find the poems on the walls of Angel Island? Choose two.

• The walls were painted over.

• The buildings became derelict.

• The army burned down the buildings.

• The poems were inscribed on wooden walls.

Which of the following statements best expresses the author’s opinion of the poems discovered at Angel Island?

• The poems are well written and use sophisticated techniques.

• The style of the poems is too old-fashioned, but the imagery is beautiful.

• The ideas and feelings explored in the poems are interesting, but the poems are not well written.

• The poems are artifacts that reveal the history of Angel Island, not truly poetry in the traditional sense.

According to “The Writing on the Wall,” how did the men who wrote poems on the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station feel about who and what they had left behind them in China?

• They were glad to have severed ties to their former lives.

• They were eager to return to China and to their previous situations.

• They were saddened by memories of their lives in China.

• They were cheered by knowing that people in China were counting on them.

Which statement best supports that poetry is a mighty and meaningful way to connect people across time.

• Imagine you saw not just one poem written on or etched into the walls, but hundreds. Imagine nearly every inch of available wall space was taken up by a poem, and there was only a little space left.

• Because so many of the poets actually spoke to each other in their “posts,” we know that the poems mattered to the people to whom they were addressed at the time.

• Or, I should say in the case of the detention center that it was years before anyone who was not being directly addressed recognized the language and understood why it mattered.

• Scholars are researching the poems, and people and poets like me, who need to believe in the power of poetry to speak beyond the here and now, can stand in front of those walls and understand the power of poetry: to calm, to communicate, to commiserate, and to conserve.

One of the central ideas of “The Writing on the Wall” is that, for many years, Chinese immigrants were treated unfairly. How does the author develop that idea? Choose two options.

• by referring to the effects of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

• by describing how extensively the walls were covered by the poets’ work

• by including quotations from the poetry the Chinese immigrants wrote

• by describing how long some of the Chinese would-be immigrants were detained

"Imagine you have traveled on a ship from China to America. Imagine it is sometime between 1910 and 1940, and you may or may not know the man who you will call your father when you arrive in the new country whose language you likely do not know. Imagine that when you arrive . . . you are taken to . . . Angel Island."

                Which of the following is a reasonable conclusion to draw from this quotation?

• Angel Island was used as an immigration station from at least 1910 until at least 1940

• Some Chinese immigrants were quite fluent in English and adapted easily.

• Immigration from China to the United States was unrestricted after 1940.

• Immigration from China to the United States became severely restricted in 1910.

Which sentence best expresses one central idea of “The Writing on the Wall”?

• People did not immediately see the value in the poems from Angel Island.

• People should organize efforts to preserve the poems from Angel Island.

• The immigrants who wrote poetry addressed one another in their poems.

• Poetry is a mighty and meaningful way to connect people across time.

To which of the following would a person most likely prefer to be in proximity?

• a tornado

• a skunk

• a street

• a friend