The Color of Water Bell Ringer #2

Based on the passage as a whole, what do you infer about the way James feels regarding his mother's bicycle riding?

• He feels proud of her.

• He feels scared for her.

• He feels embarrassed by her.

• He feels happy for her.

Choose the text evidence that best supports the answer to the previous question.

• "The image of her riding that bicycle typified her whole existence to me."

• "...Dotty would say, 'I sure wish you wouldn't ride that bike, Ma,' and I silently agreed, because I didn't want my friends seeing my white mother out there riding a bicycle."

• "Her oddness, her complete nonawareness of what the world thought of her, a nonchalance in the face of what I perceived to be imminent danger from blacks and whites who disliked her for being a white person in a black world."

• "She was already white, that was bad enough, but to go out and ride an old bike that went out of style a hundred years ago? And a grown-up, no less? I couldn't handle it."

What word can be used as a replacement for the word "nonchalance" in this passage?

• calmness

• eagerness

• carefulness

• anxiousness

Which phase from the text provides the best context for the answer to the previous question.

• "Her oddness"

• "her complete nonawareness of what the world thought of her"

• "imminent danger"

• "a white person in a black world"