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Mosaics: Reading and Writing Paragraphs
Practicing Description
Amy Tan, “Magpies”
Journal Entry
1. Describe a favorite part of your current home or apartment.
Quiz 1: Vocabulary
Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.
1. This was a wonderful clock to see, but after I heard it that first hour, then the next, and then always,
this clock became an extravagant nuisance.
a) fancy
b) ugly
c) expensive
d) drab
2. If I look upon my whole life, I cannot think of another time when I felt more comfortable: when I
had no worries, fears, or desires, when my life seemed as soft and lovely as lying inside a cocoon of
rose silk.
a) haze
b) trap
c) shell
d) room
3. I tired of anything that was not a novelty.
a) expensive item
b) unique item
c) colorful item
d) large item
4. In the evening, when there was nothing to do, we talked about the servants: who was clever, who
was diligent, who was loyal.
a) responsible
b) irresponsible
c) lazy
d) stubborn
5. First Wife, her daughters . . . gone on a pilgrimage to another Buddhist temple.
a) vacation
b) religious journey
c) school trip
d) business trip
6. And the first thing I saw, the only thing I could see at first, was a magnificent bed.
a) fine
b) uncomfortable
c) comfortable
d) bare
7. Four posts held up a silk canopy, and at each post dangled large silk ties holding back curtains.
a) grew
b) reached
c) grasped
d) hung
8. There were no willows or sweet-smelling cassia trees, no garden pavilions, no benches sitting by a
pond, no tubs of fish.
a) recreational buildings
b) sheds
c) baths
d) laundry lines
Section II: Part II 73
9. It was three stories high, of mortar and stone, with long metal balconies on each floor and chimneys
at every corner.
a) glass
b) steel
c) wood
d) masonry cement
10. And then she hastily explained that Second Wife had told everyone not to expect us for another
week at least.
a) calmly
b) hurriedly
c) quietly
d) loudly
Quiz 2: Comprehension
Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.
1. According to the narrator, in what style is her new home built?
a) Eastern
b) Western
c) contemporary
d) soothing
2. The narrator’s new home has what at each corner?
a) chimneys
b) gargoyles
c) flags
d) large clocks
3. Who is Yan Chang?
a) the mother
b) the first wife
c) the mother’s maid
d) a cousin
4. What is the first thing the narrator sees in her new bedroom?
a) an enormous window
b) a beautiful rug
c) a small puppy
d) an enormous bed
5. The narrator describes the bed as both
a) depressing and moldy.
b) heavy and light.
c) pink and blue.
d) big and comfortable.
6. How does the narrator’s uncle feel about the marriage of his mother to Wu Tsing?
a) that her marriage will be beneficial
b) that her marriage is shameful
c) that her marriage will be a happy one
d) that her marriage is an honor
7. What ability does the narrator learn from her experience with the clock?
a) She learns that she can withstand disappointment.
b) She learns that she can fix clocks.
c) She learns patience.
d) She learns how not to hear some noises.
74 Mosaics: Reading and Writing Paragraphs
8. The narrator indicates that by having so many new and wonderful things she became
a) a generous person.
b) an expert on fine art.
c) spoiled and quickly bored with anything new.
d) appreciative of all that she had.
9. What does the narrator’s mother do at night with her daughter?
a) stare out the window
b) bathe the other children in the house
c) get into arguments
d) tell stories
10. How does the narrator feel about this time in her life?
a) It was one of the most stressful times in her life.
b) It was one of the hardest times in her life.
c) It was one of the most worry-free times in her life.
d) It was one of the most confusing times in her life.
Quiz 3: Comprehension
Answer the following questions about the essay.
1. The narrator and her mother had stayed at ____________ house before moving.
2. The narrator and her mother moved to a new house because __________________.
3. The narrator was kept awake for many nights by a _____________.
4. Wu Tsing had become rich through his ___________ factories.
5. Wu Tsing liked to own things made by _______________.
Quiz 4: Critical Thinking
Answer the following questions about the essay.
1. What sort of change was the move for the narrator and her mother?
2. In what order does Tan describe the house? Is this effective, or could she have chosen a better
method of organization?
3. On which items does Tan focus her descriptions? What tone do these items set? What other items
were probably in the house but were not described? Why do you think Tan doesn’t describe them?
4. Despite the luxurious setting, Tan includes a number of clues that indicate the situation may not be
as positive as it first appears. What are these clues?
5. Do you think things will continue to go as well for the narrator in the future? Why or why not?
Section II: Part II 75
More Ideas for Writing
1. Amy Tan describes a room that played a significant role in her life. Think back on all the rooms that
have been important to you in some way. Describe one of these rooms so that the reader sees it
through your eyes as if you were in the room at the time.
2. Everyone needs to have a room to call his or her own. Think of your friends and family members.
Describe one of their rooms so that the reader will know both the room and the personality of its
owner.
Itabari Njeri “Life with Father”
Journal Entry
1. Describe your relationship with your parents.
Quiz 1: Vocabulary
Choose the correct definition for each of the following underlined words from the essay.
1. Apocryphal, perhaps, but the tale exemplified enough collective experience that I heard my father
tell virtually the same story about a former Morehouse College classmate to a buddy over the phone
one afternoon.
a) fictional
b) foreshadowing
c) strange
d) frightening
2. My mother—who commits nothing to paper, speaks of the past cryptically, and believes all
unpleasantries are best kept under a rug—once leaked the fact that she and my father took me to a
parade in Brooklyn when I was about three.
a) openly
b) briefly
c) passionately
d) rarely
3. But I was not a child inclined to lie.
a) likely
b) unlikely
c) encouraged
d) discouraged
4. I never consciously decided to stop speaking to my father, but for the next ten years, I rarely
initiated a conversation with him.
a) intentionally
b) accidentally
c) suddenly
d) obviously
5. One day, a question about the nature of truth compelled a thaw in my emotional cold war—nothing
less could have.
a) ended
b) gathered
c) forced
d) warmed
76 Mosaics: Reading and Writing Paragraphs
6. New information debunks the lies of the past, but the truth was always there.
a) embeds
b) exposes
c) mocks
d) hides
7. For days, maybe weeks, a tense calm would reign in the apartment.
a) fall
b) appear
c) rule
d) disappear
8. It was an oath with terrible consequences, one I’d have to disavow to permit myself the
vulnerability of being human.
a) deny
b) agree
c) decide
d) consider
9. My father’s unreconciled identities stoked his alcoholism.
a) imaginary
b) unresolved
c) strange
d) withdrawn
10. And since my father at once critiqued the society that denied him and longed for its approbation he
lived with the pain-filled consciousness of one who knows he is a joke.
a) advice
b) appreciation
c) confidence
d) approval
Quiz 2: Comprehension
Choose the correct answer for each of the following questions about the essay.
1. Where did Njeri live originally with her parents?
a) Brooklyn
b) Bronx
c) Queens
d) Harlem
2. Which of the following does Njeri not describe her father as being?
a) an actor
b) a philosopher
c) a Marxist historian
d) a teacher
3. Njeri compares her father’s singing voice to the famous tenor __________.
a) Luciano Pavarotti
b) Francesco Albanese
c) John McCormack
d) José Carreras
4. Where did Njeri’s parents meet each other?
a) Harvard
b) Eton
c) Morgan State University
d) Morehouse College
5. Why did Njeri’s parents separate when Njeri was around three years old?
a) they no longer loved one another
b) they were busy with their careers
c) her father was emotionally detached
d) her father was physically abusive
6. Why did Njeri’s father lose his government and university jobs?
a) his leftist political affiliations
b) his race
c) his abuse toward his wife
d) his interest in music
Section II: Part II 77
7. According to Njeri, how did her father’s students feel toward him?
a) They loved him.
b) They disliked him.
c) They were inspired by him.
d) They were afraid of him.
8. What was the disciplinary approach of Njeri’s father?
a) He believed in hitting children when they misbehave.
b) He believed in removing privileges from children when they misbehave.
c) He believed in explaining to children the negative consequences of their misbehavior.
d) He did not have a disciplinary approach.
9. Njeri claims that she did not “accept” her father as a parent, but respected him as __________.
a) a singer
b) a leader
c) a teacher
d) an intellectual
10. Njeri describes a moment when she bonded with her father over __________.
a) poetry
b) folk songs
c) the Civil Rights Movement
d) philosophy
Quiz 3: Comprehension
Answer the following questions about the essay.
1. Njeri recalls her father’s book in progress called ____________________.
2. Njeri compares her father’s life to a character in Lerone Bennett Jr.’s _________________.
3. Njeri’s father studied law on a postdoctoral scholarship from ________________________.
4. Njeri’s father received his PhD in philosophy from _________________.
5. Some contemporaries of Njeri’s father include ____________, ____________, and ____________.
Quiz 4: Critical Thinking
Answer the following questions about the essay.
1. Itabari Njeri begins her essay with a description of her father’s attire and his workspace when he
was busy reading and writing. Why do you think she chooses to do this? Is this an effective way to
begin the essay? Why or why not?
2. Njeri draws comparisons between her father and the main character in the story that Lerone Bennett
Jr. describes in Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America. What is the purpose of this
comparison? What does the comparison help the reader understand about the life experiences of
Njeri’s father?
3. Njeri recalls a terrifying incident in which her father objected to her calling him “Pop” instead of
“Daddy” (para. 11). However, she refers to her father as “Daddy” throughout the essay. Why do
you think she does this?
78 Mosaics: Reading and Writing Paragraphs
4. Njeri describes the ways that she avoided contact with her father. She writes, “I never consciously
decided to stop speaking to my father, but for the next ten years, I rarely initiated a conversation
with him” (para. 14). What senses does Njeri draw on to express her feelings toward her father?
Refer to specific passages in the text.
5. Njeri ends her essay by describing her father’s demeanor after his “drunken rages” (para. 26). She
explains that he would often say, “Truth and justice will prevail.” Why do you think she ends her
essay in this way? Do you think this is an effective ending? Why or why not?
More Ideas for Writing
1. Itabari Njeri describes some of her father’s distasteful and redeeming qualities in order to depict
him in a complex and realistic way. Choose some of the qualities that your mother or father
possesses. Describe specific instances in which your mother or father exhibited these qualities.
2. Itabari Njeri describes some of the positive interactions she had sharing ideas about truth and
playing music with her father. Describe an activity that you enjoy doing with your parents.
Section III: Part III 489
Section II: Part II: Reading and Writing Effective Paragraphs
Chapter 6: Describing
Quiz 1: Paragraph Practice
William Least Heat-Moon
1. This is a classic, rural town.
2. Sight: a dozen houses
a general merchandise store selling Fire Chief gasoline
lighted volleyball court
open-roof, rusting metal privy
PAINT ME on the door
In the hollow of a nearby oak lay a full pint of Jack Daniel’s Black Label
Smell: odor of coal smoke
3. Answers will vary, but see answer 2.
4. Spatially
Susanna Kaysen
1. Mrs. McWeeney was unpredictable.
2. Sight: small, and pig-lipped
gray hair pressed into waves that grasped her scalp like a migraine
painted white every week
paint cracking and peeling off between Monday and Friday
gnarl her face up
Sound: wore a creaky white uniform
slam back into the nursing station without a word
Touch: dry, tight
hard, gray hair
spongy ripple-soled nurse shoes
3. Answers will vary, but see answer 2.
4. From one extreme to another—most severe to least severe
N. Scott Momaday
1. Rainy Mountain is a quiet, peaceful place.
490 Mosaics: Reading and Writing Paragraphs
2. Sight: single knoll
green belts along the rivers and creeks
linear groves of hickory and pecan, willow and witch hazel
great green-and-yellow grasshoppers . . . popping up like corn
tortoises crawl about the red earth
Sound: it cracks beneath your feet
Touch: winter brings blizzards
hot tornadic winds
grass turns brittle and brown
steaming foliage seems to almost writhe in fire
to sting the flesh
sun at your back
3. Answers will vary, but see answer 2.
4. Chronologically—by seasons
Quiz 2: Multiple Choice
1. c; 2. b; 3. a; 4. d; 5. b; 6. d; 7. b; 8. c; 9. b; 10. c
Quiz 3: Fill in the Blank
1. visualize
2. focus
3. more, more
4. showing
5. general, particular, particular, general, spatially
Amy Tan, “Magpies”
Quiz 1: Vocabulary
1. a; 2. c; 3. b; 4. a; 5. b; 6. a; 7. d; 8. a; 9. d; 10. b
Quiz 2: Comprehension
1. b; 2. a; 3. c; 4. d; 5. b; 6. b; 7. d; 8. c; 9. d; 10. c
Quiz 3: Comprehension
1. her uncle’s
2. of her mother’s marriage
Section III: Part III 491
3. clock
4. carpet
5. foreigners
Quiz 4: Critical Thinking
Answers will vary.
Itabari Njeri, “Life with Father”
Quiz 1: Vocabulary
1. a; 2. b; 3. a; 4. a; 5. c; 6. b; 7. c; 8. a; 9. b; 10. d
Quiz 2: Comprehension
1. d; 2. a; 3. c; 4. c; 5. d; 6. a; 7. a; 8. a; 9. c; 10. b
Quiz 3: Comprehension
1. The Tolono Station and Beyond
2. Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America
3. 1942 to 1943
4. the University of Toronto
5. Ralph Ellison, Paul Robeson, and Richard Wright
Quiz 4: Critical Thinking
Answers will vary.
