I Want a Wife

The rhetorical effect of the opening sentence, "I belong to that classification of people known as wives" is to:

• A. Give her authority as a speaker.

• B. Provide background information.

• C. Categorize the average woman.

• D. Address the feminist point of view.

The capitalization of “A Wife” (line 1) emphasizes which of the following?

• The speaker in the passage sees being a wife as her entire identity and wants nothing more.

• The word “wife” is similar to a proper name

• “Wife” is the proper title of a category of people defined by their common duties.

• In the historical period discussed in the passage, wives were rarely called by their proper names.

The author uses all of the following rhetorical strategies in the essay EXCEPT:

• Irony

• Repetition

• Metaphor

• Hyperbole

In the fourth paragraph of the passage (lines 21–31), the wife’s role is depicted as comparable to the role of a

• spoiled child

• beloved partner

• domestic employee

• unwanted guest

The primary purpose of the passage is to

• draw attention to the enormous amount of undervalued work wives do for their families

• argue in favor of adding an additional wife to most households

• persuade the speaker’s husband to hire more household help to assist the speaker in her duties

• challenge the argument that women do not belong in the workforce

• convince women not to get married

In this sentence, to what does “it” refer? “It may mean a small cut in my wife’s income from time to time, but I guess I can tolerate that.”

• Her inability to work for long hours.

• Her tolerance of her husband's needs.

• The wife's sacrifice to the family.

• Her willingness to provide for the family.

The passage is best described as a:

• Narrative

• Cause and effect

• Definition

• Compare and contrast

The rhetorical question at the end of the passage, “My God, who wouldn’t want a wife?” (line 39), serves which of the following functions?

• . It implies that virtually everyone would want a wife given everything that wives do.

• It suggests that having a wife is more desirable than being a wife

• It provides a succinct conclusion to the main argument of the passage.

• all of the above

• none of the above

Although the speaker is a wife herself, she chooses to write from the perspective of someone who wants a wife rather than from the perspective of someone who is a wife. What are the effects of this choice of perspective?

I. It highlights the ways in which gendered expectations of husbands and wives benefit men.

II. It allows for a provocative satirical approach rather than a simple list of a wife’s complaints.

III. It allows the author to trick the audience into believing that she’s a man so that she’ll be taken more seriously

• I only

• I and II only

• I and III only

• II and III only

• I, II, and III

What is the function of the second paragraph?

• The start of the author's layering of examples.

• To introduce her claim.

• To recognize her work ethic.

• To display the hardships in her friend's life.