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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. According to Rodriguez, what is wrong with speaking a private language in public?

2. How does Rodriguez describe the sound of English?

3. Why is the picture of Christ with a punctured heart important?

4. What is Rodriguez's initial response to bilingual education?

5. How does Rodriguez describe his life as a child?

Short Essay Questions

1. Does Rodriguez's family have the same level of education he does?

2. How does Rodriguez view his parents' use of English?

3. How does Rodriguez respond when people ask him how he was successful in school? Is his answer completely honest? Why or why not?

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

5. Once Rodriguez starts to read, what happens?

6. How does Rodriguez describe himself as a student?

7. What does Rodriguez say about how bilingual education affects the intersection of public and private languages?

8. How does Rodriguez describe each language (Spanish and English) differently?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Many books written by minority authors identify the discrimination, challenges, and disadvantages faced by people of that minority group or culture. Rodriguez does acknowledge some of those things, but for the most part, his story is remarkably positive about ethnicity. In some cases, he actually identifies his ethnicity as a benefit or an advantage.

Part One: Identify at least two places in the book where Rodriguez identifies some element of his ethnicity as an advantage rather than a disadvantage.

Part Two: As a reader, what do you think about his handling of the ethnicity issue? Is he making things sound better than they really are? Do you think other writers might make things sound worse than they really are?

Part Three: Which approach would you rather read? Do you think your opinion has anything to do with your ethnicity or your life experience?

Essay Topic 2

Rodriguez claims that it is his education that made him successful. That is the reason he is writing this history of his education.

Part One: Find examples that prove his point. How is the person he is today a result of getting a good education?

Part Two: Find examples that disprove his point. What other advantages does he have (for example, where he lives, people he knows, personal characteristics) that could have led him to be successful even without a great education?

Part Three: Decide for yourself -- did Rodriguez's education make him successful? Explain your reasoning.

Essay Topic 3

Rodriguez focuses heavily on sound, particularly the sound of English versus the sound of Spanish.

Part One: How does he describe the sound of each language? Do his descriptions change as he learns more English? If so, how?

Part Two: How does he describe the sound of specific characters speaking in each language (for example, his mother speaking English versus his mother speaking Spanish)? What does that description tell you about the character? about the language?

Part Three: Rodriguez includes Spanish words throughout the text. When does he use Spanish words? Why does he use those instead of just translating them into English?

(see the answer keys)

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