Passage 1
Who tells Mita she is beautiful?
Somesh
Where does Mita live that feels too small to her?
A two room apartment.
What does the speaker want Mita to do when he says, “I want you to go to college”?
They want her to pursue higher education and choose a career.
Where is Mita lying at the beginning of the passage?
On the floor on a white sari.
Where does Mita plan to hide her American clothes?
Among Somesh‘s pants, at the bottom of her suitcase.
Why does Mita feel ashamed at the end?
Because she has become too westernized.
What career does Mita imagine when she pictures herself standing in front of “a classroom of smiling children?
A teacher
What literary device is used in the phrase, “the water…licked at the insides of my ears in welcome”?
Personification
Why are the people outside the room afraid to leave Mita alone?
A. She might fall.
B. She may be sad.
C. She may harm herself.
They fear that she might harm herself.
How does passage 2 reflect a particular culture or cultural values?
A. By mentioning “good Indian wife” duties.
B. By comparing Mita’s world to a scene in a glass paperweight.
C. By Mita saying she feels too “westernized”.
A. It dives into the duties and clothes of a “good Indian wife”.
What detail shows Mita is already preparing to leaver her current life?
A. The fragrant sandalwood.
B. The packed suitcase
C. American Dress
B. The packed suitcase.
What does Mita letting herself sink in the water reveal based off of the HTRLLP idea of Baptism?
A. Rebirth
B. Bathing
C. Swimming
A. Rebirth, she is symbolically leaving her old life behind and choosing to live a different one.
What can readers assume happened to Mita at the end of the passage?
A. Mita came back to see her husband.
B. She was going to bed.
C. She just lost her husband.
C. Mita has just lost her husband.
What does Mita’s guilt about kissing her husband suggest about cultural expectations?
A. Women are completely free.
B. Tradition controls her private life.
C. Her culture doesn’t affect her life.
B. It shows how traditional controls even private parts of her life.
What does the “American Dress” symbolize about Mita’s imagined future?
A. Her attempt to fit in
B. Her want to go back to India
C. Other peoples want for her to become a teacher.
A. Her attempt to fit into an American, professional identity.
What activity does the narrator describe doing at the lake when she wants to be alone?
A. Waking
B. Swimming away from her friends.
C. Swimming towards her friends.
D. Eating
B. Swimming away from her friends and floating on her back.
What item of clothing connects to larger issues of self expression?
A. The T-shirt
B. The white sari
C. Somesh’s Pants
D. The skirt set
B. The white sari acts as a lens for understanding mita’s personal grief.
Where is there tension in Mita’s life?
A. Between her traditional values and desire for freedom.
B. Between her life and America.
C. Between Somesh’s life and her friend, Radha’s life.
A. Tension between her traditional values and desire for freedom.
What does the phrase, “faceless parade” emphasize when describing the store customer?
A. How mean the customers would be.
B. How she would make friends at this job.
C. How repetitive and unfulfilling life would be.
C. It emphasizes how repetitive and unfulfilling that life would be.
Using a psychological lens, what does Mita’s urge to “let go” suggest about her inner conflict?
A. Happiness
B. Anxiety/Depression
C. Emotional exhaustion/Isolation
C. It suggests a struggle with emotional exhaustion, isolation, and desire to escape.