The Writing on the Wall Quiz

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 three options.

• The immigrant was a woman.

• The immigrant was European.

• The immigrant was a criminal.

• The immigrant’s papers were incorrect.

• The immigrant was Chinese.

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 three options.

• The buildings became derelict.

• The detention center was preserved.

• The army burned down the buildings.

• The barracks were deserted for years.

• The walls were painted over.

According to “The Writing on the Wall,” why did people decide to preserve the poems on the walls of the detention center?

• The poems are great examples of classical Chinese literature.

• The poems document the experiences of hundreds of immigrants.

• The poems record the history of the Angel Island detention center.

• The poems describe what it was like to be a Chinese American in the early 1900s.

Which of the following is the feeling most often expressed by the poets quoted in “The Writing on the Wall”?

• anger

• regret

• dismay

• loneliness

If an immigrant can be said to keep a memento from a place, which of the following must be true?

• He or she would not want to go back there again.

• He or she would want to send it back to that place.

• He or she would not want to forget having been there.

• He or she would want to share it with many other people.

If an immigrant can be said to have composed a poem, which of the following must be true?

• He or she read it out loud to an audience.

• He or she drew upon personal thoughts or feelings to create it.

• He or she used a variety of tools to carve it into a wall.

• He or she repeated verses that had been memorized in the past.

If a poem can be said to have been inscribed, which of the following must be true?

• It had to be memorized and recited out loud.

• It had to be recorded in some way on a surface.

• It had to be another poem from another century.

• It had to be a Chinese symbol for a word or sound.

The following question has two parts. Answer Part A first, and then Part B. Part A: 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.

Part B: Which quotation from “The Writing on the Wall” best supports the answer to Part A?

• The Chinese immigrants, in particular, raised with a tradition of public poetry, composed carefully crafted verses that drew on Classical traditions, forms, and allusions.

• The poets held at the Angel Island Immigration Station were partaking of a centuries-old tradition, creating a camaraderie far beyond the confines of the walls they found themselves isolated inside.

• Here we are, at least 60 years after this poem was penned, with a man from a different country, reading this lonely man’s words and sharing them with people who have come to read them.

• 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.