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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Rodriguez's family seem to think about Spanish and English?

2. What does Rodriguez mean by "intimate utterance"?

3. How does Rodriguez feel when he observes the group of black teenagers on the bus?

4. What does Rodriguez call the English-speaking people his family interacts with?

5. What does Rodriguez say would be the disadvantage of bilingual education?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Rodriguez say about his experience of growing up Catholic?

2. Rodriguez's family continues to speak to him in Spanish. What does that suggest about what they think about the value of Spanish?

3. Why does Rodriguez say he spent so many years in the classroom?

4. What conflicting messages does Rodriguez's father give him about getting an education?

5. What does Rodriguez identify as the pros and cons of bilingual education?

6. What does Rodriguez describe as the differences between Mexican Catholicism and English Catholicism? Identify two characteristics of each.

7. What do other people think of the "scholarship boy"?

8. Why does the Rodriguez family tease Richard? What do they call him?

9. What is Rodriguez's initial attitude about reading? What happens to him because of that attitude? What do his parents think about reading?

10. Rodriguez finds a description in THE USES OF LITERACY that reminds him of himself. What is that description?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Every book has flat and round characters. A flat character is two-dimensional, someone who serves a purpose in the book but does not seem like a living, breathing person. A round character is one who is fully developed and seems like a real person. If you read a story about a boyfriend and girlfriend eating dinner at a restaurant, the boyfriend and girlfriend will be round characters. The people at the next table or the waiter who serves them their food are probably flat characters.

Part One: Besides Richard Rodriguez, which characters in this book are round? In other words, which ones have fully developed characteristics and identities? Which ones do you feel like you really know? How big a role do these characters play in the book?

Part Two: Which characters are flat or two-dimensional? Do not try to list all of them, but pick out at least four characters that serve an important purpose, but still do not get fully developed. For example, how well developed is the priest who comes to visit? Or the group of black teenagers on the bus?

Part Three: Think as the author for a moment. Why did Rodriguez choose to make some important characters flat? Why did Rodriguez choose to make other important characters round? What does that say about the character or Rodriguez's relationship with the character?

Essay Topic 2

Part One: Compare and contrast Rodriguez's childhood view of religion and his adult view of religion.

Part Two: Rodriguez acknowledges that the church itself changed some of its practices as he grew up. What effect did that have on his decision to stay Catholic? Did it encourage him to re-evaluate his religious beliefs and practices?

Essay Topic 3

Rodriguez talks a lot about the difference between public and private language.

Part One: How does he define the difference between public and private language? Analyze what he is saying - don't just say that his public language is English and his private language is Spanish. What really defines the differences between the two types of language?

Part Two: Do people have to be bilingual to have a private language? Why or why not? Use examples from the book to support your argument.

Part Three: Are there times when two characters are speaking the same language but not really communicating or understanding each other? What does that say about private and public language?

(see the answer keys)

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