Focus and Motivate The All-American Slurp · PDF fileFocus and Motivate Selection Resources Meet the Author ... mother ended the ﬁ nes when she ... situation by using a humorous

Focus and Motivate

Selection Resources

Meet the Author

Author OnlineGo to thinkcentral.com.KEYWORD: HML6-443

Author OnlineGo to thinkcKEYWORD: H

Lensey Namiokaborn 1929

Outsiders’ Stories Lensey Namioka says that her stories tell about people who feel like “outsiders.” This is true whether the story is set in present-day Seattle or 16th-century Japan. To write these stories, she draws upon her own experiences.

Growing Up on the Outside Namioka grew up in China. When war broke out in 1937, her family moved to western China, where the food was very spicy and the dialect (regional form of a language) was hard to understand. This made her feel like an outsider in her own country. Before the war ended, her family moved to the United States. The strange customs, food, and language of her new country made her feel even more like an outsider.

Living in Two Worlds At fi rst, Namioka’s father charged everyone in the family a fi ne for each English word used at home. He did so because he did not want his family to forget the Chinese language. Namioka’s mother ended the fi nes when she refused to pay. “Besides,” says Namioka, “there were words that just had no Chinese translation. How do you say ‘cheeseburger’ in Chinese, for instance?”

literary skills: tone and imageryHave you ever been embarrassed? Sometimes people use humor to make light of an embarrassing experience. Lensey Namioka writes about a series of awkward situations one family faces after immigrating to a new country. Having gone through a similar experience, she makes light of the situation by using a humorous tone and memorable imagery. A writer’s tone is his or her attitude towards a subject. Tone can often be described in a single word, such as angry, playful, or admiring. Namioka establishes a humorous tone toward her subject through her characters’ thoughts, words, and actions. She also uses vivid imagery—words and phrases that appeal to one or more of our senses—to help you imagine the funny scenarios in her story. Most sensory images are visual, but images can often appeal to several senses at once.

reading strategy: visualizeDetails in a story help you visualize, or picture in your mind, what takes place. Record the ways in which the writer’s sensory images help you visualize the events in the story.

Details What I Visualize

Mother combs June’s hair. a mother combing her daughter’s hair in frontof a mirror and smiling

vocabulary in contextNamioka uses the listed words in her story. To see how many you know, complete each sentence with a word from the list.

word list

consumption etiquette mortifiedcope lavishly revolting

1. Follow proper when you meet someone new. 2. I’m when I can’t remember someone’s name. 3. Their sofa was decorated with fancy pillows. 4. That weird stew was absolutely ! 5. The waiter had to with the loud guests. 6. of too many spicy foods makes me feel ill.

Complete the activities in your Reader/Writer Notebook.

443

TX_L06PE-u04s01-brSlur.indd 443 2/13/09 1:25:02 PM

Before Reading

Music

● Rock ’n’ Roll

● Country

● Classical

Holidays

● Thanksgiving

● Halloween

● Valentine’s Day

● Fourth of July

Food

● Desserts

● Spicy Foods

● Salty Snacks

Movies

● Dramas

● Comedies

● Musicals

● Sci-Fi

Seasons

● Winter

● Spring

● Summer

● Fall

Choose your favorite from each grouping. Then find out how your classmates answered.

Choose Your FavoritesSurvey:

The All-American SlurpShort Story by Lensey Namioka

Have you ever been somewhere and found that the language, food, or customs were different than what you were used to? You may have felt out of place. Or perhaps you discovered that you actually had a lot in common with the people you met. In “The All-American Slurp,” a Chinese-American girl learns that people can share similarities even when they appear very different at first.

SURVEY Complete the survey below. Then form a group with two or three people you don’t know well. Share your surveys to see how much you do (or don’t) have in common.

Are people more ALIKEor different?

442

READING 8 Understand, make inferences, and draw conclusions about how an author’s sensory language creates imagery in literary text. Explain how authors create meaning through figurative language emphasizing the use of hyperbole. RC-6(C) Monitor and adjust comprehension (creating sensory images).


RESOURCE MANAGER UNIT 4Plan and Teach, pp. 11–17Summary, pp. 19–20†‡*Literary Analysis and Reading

Strategy, pp. 21–24†*Vocabulary, pp. 25–27*Grammar in Context, p. 30

DIAGNOSTIC AND SELECTION TESTSSelection Tests, pp. 127–130

BEST PRACTICES TOOLKITTimeline, p. B23Word Squares, p. E10Questioning the Author,

p. D21New Word Analysis, p. E8Venn Diagram, p. A26

TECHNOLOGY

Teacher One Stop DVD-ROM

Student One Stop DVD-ROM

Audio Anthology CD

GrammarNotes DVD-ROM

ExamView Test Generator on the Teacher One Stop

Print resources are on the Teacher One Stop DVD-ROM and on thinkcentral.com.

* Resources for Differentiation † Also in Spanish ‡ In Haitian Creole and Vietnamese

READING 8 Understand, make inferences, and draw conclusions about how an author’s sensory language creates imagery in literary text. Explain how authors create meaning through figurative language emphasizing the use of hyperbole. 2B Use context to determine or clarify the meaning of unfamiliar words. RC-6(C) Monitor and adjust comprehension (creating sensory images). ORAL AND WRITTEN CONVENTIONS 19C Use complete simple and compound sentences.

summaryThe narrator of this story is the teenage daughter of a Chinese family that has recently immigrated to the United States. She is frequently mortified by her family’s lack of knowledge about American manners and customs. When her best friend’s family comes to dinner, she is relieved to learn that they are just as ignorant about Chinese customs.

Are people more ALIKE or different?Discuss the question. Ask students to share experiences of feeling out of place. Did they begin to notice similarities they share with others? Then have students complete the SURVEY and discuss their results.

TEKS Focus

TX_L06TE-u04s1-brame.indd 442 10/14/09 7:44:51 PM

TeachMeet the Author

Author OnlineGo to thinkcentral.com.KEYWORD: HML6-443

Author OnlineGo to thinkcKEYWORD: H

Lensey Namiokaborn 1929

Outsiders’ Stories Lensey Namioka says that her stories tell about people who feel like “outsiders.” This is true whether the story is set in present-day Seattle or 16th-century Japan. To write these stories, she draws upon her own experiences.

Growing Up on the Outside Namioka grew up in China. When war broke out in 1937, her family moved to western China, where the food was very spicy and the dialect (regional form of a language) was hard to understand. This made her feel like an outsider in her own country. Before the war ended, her family moved to the United States. The strange customs, food, and language of her new country made her feel even more like an outsider.

Living in Two Worlds At fi rst, Namioka’s father charged everyone in the family a fi ne for each English word used at home. He did so because he did not want his family to forget the Chinese language. Namioka’s mother ended the fi nes when she refused to pay. “Besides,” says Namioka, “there were words that just had no Chinese translation. How do you say ‘cheeseburger’ in Chinese, for instance?”

literary skills: tone and imageryHave you ever been embarrassed? Sometimes people use humor to make light of an embarrassing experience. Lensey Namioka writes about a series of awkward situations one family faces after immigrating to a new country. Having gone through a similar experience, she makes light of the situation by using a humorous tone and memorable imagery. A writer’s tone is his or her attitude towards a subject. Tone can often be described in a single word, such as angry, playful, or admiring. Namioka establishes a humorous tone toward her subject through her characters’ thoughts, words, and actions. She also uses vivid imagery—words and phrases that appeal to one or more of our senses—to help you imagine the funny scenarios in her story. Most sensory images are visual, but images can often appeal to several senses at once.

reading strategy: visualizeDetails in a story help you visualize, or picture in your mind, what takes place. Record the ways in which the writer’s sensory images help you visualize the events in the story.

Details What I Visualize

Mother combs June’s hair. a mother combing her daughter’s hair in frontof a mirror and smiling

vocabulary in contextNamioka uses the listed words in her story. To see how many you know, complete each sentence with a word from the list.

word list

consumption etiquette mortifiedcope lavishly revolting

1. Follow proper when you meet someone new. 2. I’m when I can’t remember someone’s name. 3. Their sofa was decorated with fancy pillows. 4. That weird stew was absolutely ! 5. The waiter had to with the loud guests. 6. of too many spicy foods makes me feel ill.

Complete the activities in your Reader/Writer Notebook.

443


Before Reading

Music

● Rock ’n’ Roll

● Country

● Classical

Holidays

● Thanksgiving

● Halloween

● Valentine’s Day

● Fourth of July

Food

● Desserts

● Spicy Foods

● Salty Snacks

Movies

● Dramas

● Comedies

● Musicals

● Sci-Fi

Seasons

● Winter

● Spring

● Summer

● Fall

Choose your favorite from each grouping. Then find out how your classmates answered.

Choose Your FavoritesSurvey:

The All-American SlurpShort Story by Lensey Namioka

Have you ever been somewhere and found that the language, food, or customs were different than what you were used to? You may have felt out of place. Or perhaps you discovered that you actually had a lot in common with the people you met. In “The All-American Slurp,” a Chinese-American girl learns that people can share similarities even when they appear very different at first.

SURVEY Complete the survey below. Then form a group with two or three people you don’t know well. Share your surveys to see how much you do (or don’t) have in common.

Are people more ALIKEor different?

442

READING 8 Understand, make inferences, and draw conclusions about how an author’s sensory language creates imagery in literary text. Explain how authors create meaning through figurative language emphasizing the use of hyperbole. RC-6(C) Monitor and adjust comprehension (creating sensory images).


L I T E R A R Y A N A L Y S I S

TEKS Focus

R E A D I N G S T R A T E G Y

vocabulary in contextDIAGNOSE WORD KNOWLEDGE Have all students complete Vocabulary in Context. Check students’ answers. (1. etiquette; 2. mortified; 3. lavishly; 4. revolting; 5. cope; 6. consumption) Preview selection vocabulary definitions:

consumption (kEn-sOmpPshEn) n. the act of taking in, eating, or drinking

cope (kIp) v. to struggle to overcome difficulties

etiquette (DtPG-kDtQ) n. the practice of social manners

lavishly (lBvPGsh-lC) adv. in a rich or plentiful way; abundantly

mortified (môrPtE-fFdQ) adj. ashamed, humiliatedrevolting (rG-vIlPtGng) adj. causing disgust

PRETEACH VOCABULARY Use the Vocabu-lary Study copy master to help students use context clues to define each boldfaced word.

RESOURCE MANAGER—Copy MasterVocabulary Study p. 25

Have students conceal the right column. Read aloud the first sentence. Discuss possible meanings for consumption, such as “eating.” Repeat for the remaining sentences. Have students complete Part B independently.

Model the Strategy: visualizeRead aloud this example:

George scrambled to get out of the way as Keith sauntered down the hall.

Ask students to use a chart as on page 443. Possible answers: Details: Keith comes down hall, George gets out of way; What I Visualize: tough-looking boy strolling down hall, worried boy stumbles to get out of wayGUIDED PRACTICE Ask students to identify passages from other works that help them see mental pictures of characters or action.

RESOURCE MANAGER—Copy MasterVisualize p. 23

Model the Skill: tone and imagery

Read aloud this example:When Dad showed up wearing his pink bike shorts, he looked like a giant piece of bubble gum. I tried to act like I didn’t know him, but he shouted out my name!

Ask: What is the tone of this passage? What imagery contributes to the tone? Possible answers: humorous, honest, horri-fied; “a giant piece of bubble gum”GUIDED PRACTICE Ask students to describe an embarrassing moment using a humor-ous tone and a vivid, visual image.

V O C A B U L A R Y S K I L L

the all-american slurp 443

TEKS RC-6(C)

TEKS 8

TEKS 2

TX_L06TE-u04s1-brame.indd 443 10/1/09 1:58:06 PM

Practice and Apply

TX_L06PE-u04s01-Slurp.indd 445 2/13/09 1:25:36 PM

The first time our family was invited out to dinner in America, we disgraced ourselves while eating celery. We had emigrated to this country from China, and during our early days here we had a hard time with American table manners.

In China we never ate celery raw, or any other kind of vegetable raw. We always had to disinfect the vegetables in boiling water first. When we were presented with our first relish tray, the raw celery caught us unprepared.

We had been invited to dinner by our neighbors, the Gleasons. After arriving at the house, we shook hands with our hosts and packed ourselves into a sofa. As our family of four sat stiffly in a row, my younger brother and I stole glances at our parents for a clue as to what to do next. a

Mrs. Gleason offered the relish tray to Mother. The tray looked pretty, with its tiny red radishes, curly sticks of carrots, and long, slender stalks of pale green celery. “Do try some of the celery, Mrs. Lin,” she said. “It’s from a local farmer, and it’s sweet.”

Mother picked up one of the green stalks, and Father followed suit. Then I picked up a stalk, and my brother did too. So there we sat, each with a stalk of celery in our right hand.

Mrs. Gleason kept smiling. “Would you like to try some of the dip, Mrs. Lin? It’s my own recipe: sour cream and onion flakes, with a dash of Tabasco sauce.”

10

20

T

444 unit 4: sensory language, imagery, and style

a TONE AND IMAGERY

Reread lines 1–12. What words and images help create a humorous tone toward the subject of the story?

What emotion or attitude does the girl’s facial expression convey?

L e n s e y N a m i o k aL e n s e y N a m i o


differentiated instruction


for struggling readersIn combination with the Audio Anthology CD, use one or more Targeted Passages (pp. 444, 451, 453) to ensure that students focus on key story events, concepts, and skills.

1 Targeted Passage [Lines 1–19]This passage introduces the main characters and the theme of dealing with awkward situ-ations: the Lins have been invited to dinner and are faced with handling unfamiliar food.

• Who are the Lins? (lines 1–3)• What did the Lins struggle with when they

first moved to the United States? (lines 3–4)• What do the Lins do with the celery? Why?

(lines 17–19)

a tone and imagery

Possible answers: • “we disgraced ourselves while eating

celery” (lines 1–2)• “the raw celery caught us unprepared”

(lines 7–8)• “packed ourselves into a sofa” (lines 10–11)• “sat stiffly in a row” (line 11)Extend the Discussion Why do you think people sometimes make fun of themselves in awkward situations?

read with a purposeHelp students set a purpose for reading. As they read “The All-American Slurp,” ask them to think about how the narrator adapts to a new culture.

Targeted Passage1

444 unit 4

TEKS 8

y

TX_L06TE-u04s1-americ.indd 444TX_L06TE-u04s1-americ.indd 444 2/20/09 11:29:16 AM2/20/09 11:29:16 AM


The first time our family was invited out to dinner in America, we disgraced ourselves while eating celery. We had emigrated to this country from China, and during our early days here we had a hard time with American table manners.

In China we never ate celery raw, or any other kind of vegetable raw. We always had to disinfect the vegetables in boiling water first. When we were presented with our first relish tray, the raw celery caught us unprepared.

We had been invited to dinner by our neighbors, the Gleasons. After arriving at the house, we shook hands with our hosts and packed ourselves into a sofa. As our family of four sat stiffly in a row, my younger brother and I stole glances at our parents for a clue as to what to do next. a

Mrs. Gleason offered the relish tray to Mother. The tray looked pretty, with its tiny red radishes, curly sticks of carrots, and long, slender stalks of pale green celery. “Do try some of the celery, Mrs. Lin,” she said. “It’s from a local farmer, and it’s sweet.”

Mother picked up one of the green stalks, and Father followed suit. Then I picked up a stalk, and my brother did too. So there we sat, each with a stalk of celery in our right hand.

Mrs. Gleason kept smiling. “Would you like to try some of the dip, Mrs. Lin? It’s my own recipe: sour cream and onion flakes, with a dash of Tabasco sauce.”

10

20

T


a TONE AND IMAGERY

Reread lines 1–12. What words and images help create a humorous tone toward the subject of the story?

What emotion or attitude does the girl’s facial expression convey?

L e n s e y N a m i o k aL e n s e y N a m i o


backgroundWhat Is Etiquette? Etiquette is a system of rules and traditions that guide behavior in social situations. Etiquette has to do with good manners, but also with what others expect of us. Different cultures have different rules for etiquette. In China, the idea of shame, or face (as in “to lose face”), is very important. Public displays of emotion are frowned upon. It is also very important to be modest, and it is considered impolite to brag about your own accomplishments or the accomplishments of your children.

cultural connection Chinese Meals Rice, or fan (grains and rice), is the centerpiece of a Chinese meal in most parts of China. It is balanced with ts’ai (vegetables and meat). It is considered good manners to eat from each ts’ai dish, a little at a time. You should take the food from the center of the table and place it in your bowl of rice. It is bad manners to eat it directly from the larger dish. Diners do not have to eat all of the ts’ai, but they should eat all of the fan. It would be considered poor manners and waste-ful to leave rice in one’s bowl.

for english language learnersComprehension Support Have students read the Summary in whatever language they read best. Tell students that taking notes and making outlines or summaries can help them clarify their understand-ing of what they read. Have students summarize what they read or listen to after they do what is indicated in the chart.

beginning intermediate advanced advanced highListen as you read the story, or follow the text while they listen to the Audio Anthology CD.

Read the targeted passages in pairs.

Read the selection independently.

RESOURCE MANAGERSummary pp. 19–20

Analyze Visuals

Possible answer: The girl’s expression is satis-fied, happy, and slightly playful. She seems to be enjoying her drink.


TEKS 13

TX_L06TE-u04s1-americ.indd 445 10/1/09 2:29:20 PM


Most Chinese don’t care for dairy products, and in those days I wasn’t even ready to drink fresh milk. Sour cream sounded perfectly revolting. Our family shook our heads in unison.

Mrs. Gleason went off with the relish tray to the other guests, and we carefully watched to see what they did. Everyone seemed to eat the raw vegetables quite happily.

Mother took a bite of her celery. Crunch. “It’s not bad!” she whispered.Father took a bite of his celery. Crunch. “Yes, it is good,” he said,

looking surprised.I took a bite, and then my brother. Crunch, crunch. It was more than

good; it was delicious. Raw celery has a slight sparkle, a zingy taste that you don’t get in cooked celery. When Mrs. Gleason came around with the relish tray, we each took another stalk of celery, except my brother. He took two.

There was only one problem: long strings ran through the length of the stalk, and they got caught in my teeth. When I help my mother in the kitchen, I always pull the strings out before slicing celery.

I pulled the strings out of my stalk. Z-z-zip, z-z-zip. My brother followed suit. Z-z-zip, z-z-zip, z-z-zip. To my left, my parents were taking care of their own stalks. Z-z-zip, z-z-zip, z-z-zip. b

Suddenly I realized that there was dead silence except for our zipping. Looking up, I saw that the eyes of everyone in the room were on our family. Mr. and Mrs. Gleason, their daughter Meg, who was my friend, and their neighbors the Badels—they were all staring at us as we busily pulled the strings of our celery.

That wasn’t the end of it. Mrs. Gleason announced that dinner was served and invited us to the dining table. It was lavishly covered with platters of food, but we couldn’t see any chairs around the table. So we helpfully carried over some dining chairs and sat down. All the other guests just stood there.

Mrs. Gleason bent down and whispered to us, “This is a buffet dinner. You help yourselves to some food and eat it in the living room.”

Our family beat a retreat back to the sofa as if chased by enemy soldiers. For the rest of the evening, too mortified to go back to the dining table, I nursed1 a bit of potato salad on my plate. c

Next day Meg and I got on the school bus together. I wasn’t sure how she would feel about me after the spectacle2 our family made at the party. But she was just the same as usual, and the only reference she made to the party was, “Hope you and your folks got enough to eat last night. You certainly didn’t take very much. Mom never tries to figure out how

30

40

50

60

1. nursed: very slowly ate.

2. spectacle: public display of bad behavior.


revolting (rG-vIlPtGng) adj. causing disgust revolt v.

b TONE AND IMAGERY

Using a word that sounds like what it means is called onomatopoeia (JnQE-mBtQE-pCPE). Notice the word crunch in lines 29–30 and the word z-z-zip in lines 40–42. How do these words add humor to the story? Which senses do these images of eating celery appeal to?

lavishly (lBvPGsh-lC) adv. in a rich or plentiful way; abundantly

mortified (môrPtE-fFdQ) adj. ashamed, humiliated mortify v.

c VISUALIZE

In line 55, what picture does the description of the family beating “a retreat back to the sofa as if chased by enemy soldiers” create in your mind?

TX_L06PE-u04s01-Slurp.indd 446 2/13/09 1:25:40 PMdifferentiated instructionfor english language learnersVocabulary: Onomatopoeia [mixed-readiness pairs] Ask students to recall the definition of onomatopoeia. Tell them that writers use onomatopoeic words not only for their meaning but because they help con-vey a certain tone. Have students read lines 29–32. Ask them to find the onomatopoeia in these lines (“Crunch”). Ask what tone the author creates by using this word.

Have students work in pairs to list as many examples of onomatopoeia as they can think of. If students are having difficulty, suggest that they think of animal sounds. Some of these words may have equivalents in stu-dents’ home languages. Encourage students to share the translations. Have students keep a list of the onomatopoeia that they find in this story.


b Model the Skill: tone and imagery

Read lines 29–42 aloud, exaggerating the sounds of crunch and zip. Then note that each sounds like the meaning of the word. Suggest other words that function in the same way, such as whack and knock.

Possible answer: The word crunch focuses attention on the fact that the Lins are experiencing raw celery for the first time. The word z-z-zip makes readers think of unzipping a zipper, which is an unusual and humorous comparison to stripping the strings from celery stalks. The words appeal to our sense of hearing.

c visualizePossible answers: It suggests a group of sol-diers fleeing from an attack towards safety, which in this case is the sofa.


V O C A B U L A R Y

own the word• revolting: Note that this description

involves a strong reaction against eating a particular food. Ask students to give examples of foods they find revolting. Possible answers: liver, cauliflower, pea soup

• lavishly: Ask students if they have ever been to an event where a table is lavishly covered with platters of food. Possible answers: Yes, at my uncle’s wedding.

• mortified: Act out sitting in one place and being mortified. Then ask one or two students to demonstrate.

446 unit 4

TEKS 8

andd

TEKS RC-6(C)

TEKS 2


much food to prepare. She just puts everything on the table and hopes for the best.”

I began to relax. The Gleasons’ dinner party wasn’t so different from a Chinese meal after all. My mother also puts everything on the table and hopes for the best. d

Meg was the first friend I had made after we came to America. I eventually got acquainted with a few other kids in school, but Meg was still the only real friend I had.

My brother didn’t have any problems making friends. He spent all his time with some boys who were teaching him baseball, and in no time he could speak English much faster than I could—not better, but faster.

I worried more about making mistakes, and I spoke carefully, making sure I could say everything right before opening my mouth. At least I had a better accent than my parents, who never really got rid of their Chinese accent, even years later. My parents had both studied English in school before coming to America, but what they had studied was mostly written English, not spoken.

70

M


Based on the food shown, what can you infer about the event pictured here?

d TONE

The tone of lines 65–67 is different from the tone the author used to describe the dinner party. Choose one word to describe the tone of this paragraph.

TX_L06PE-u04s01-Slurp.indd 447 2/13/09 1:25:42 PMTX_L06PE-u04s01-Slurp.indd 446 2/13/09 1:25:40 PM

for english language learnersComprehension: Sequence Explain that the helping verb had, used with a past participle such as studied, indicates an action that happened before another past action. This tense is used for events that happened before the main action of the story. Have students make a timeline to show the sequence of events mentioned in lines 68–79.

BEST PRACTICES TOOLKIT—TransparencyTimeline p. B23

for advanced learners/pre–apEvaluate Character [small-group option] How does the narrator’s approach to learn-ing English reflect her character traits and personality? After students read lines 68–79, have them discuss the narrator’s character traits. What does this passage reveal about her? How do her character traits compare with those of her brother and of her parents?

Analyze Visuals

Possible answer: The food looks carefully arranged and fancy. This suggests that it is for a celebration of some kind.

revisit the big questionAre people more ALIKE or different?Discuss In lines 62–67, what similarities do Meg’s mother and the narrator’s mother share? How does this realization affect the narrator? Possible answers: For dinner par-ties or meals, they both “put everything on the table and hope for the best.” The narrator wor-ries less about the impression her family made during the dinner party because she realizes that the Gleasons were also concerned about the impression that they made on their guests.

d tone

Possible answers: relaxed, calm



TEKS 13

TEKS 8


I worked on her. This is what I did. Since we didn’t have a car in those days, I often ran down to the neighborhood store to pick up things for her. The groceries cost less at a big supermarket, but the closest one was many blocks away. One day, when she ran out of flour, I offered to borrow a bike from our neighbor’s son and buy a ten-pound bag of flour at the big supermarket. I mounted the boy’s bike and waved to Mother. “I’ll be back in five minutes!”

Before I started pedaling, I heard her voice behind me. “You can’t go out in public like that! People can see all the way up to your thighs!”

“I’m sorry,” I said innocently. “I thought you were in a hurry to get the flour.” For dinner we were going to have pot-stickers (fried Chinese dumplings), and we needed a lot of flour.

“Couldn’t you borrow a girl’s bicycle?” complained Mother. “That way your skirt won’t be pushed up.”

“There aren’t too many of those around,” I said. “Almost all the girls wear jeans while riding a bike, so they don’t see any point buying a girl’s bike.”

We didn’t eat pot-stickers that evening, and Mother was thoughtful. Next day we took the bus downtown and she bought me a pair of jeans. In the same week, my brother made the baseball team of his junior high school, Father started taking driving lessons, and Mother discovered rummage sales. We soon got all the furniture we needed, plus a dart board and a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle (fourteen hours later, we discovered that it was a 999-piece jigsaw puzzle). There was hope that the Lins might become a normal American family after all. e

Then came our dinner at the Lakeview Restaurant.The Lakeview was an expensive restaurant, one of those places where

a headwaiter dressed in tails conducted you to your seat, and the only light came from candles and flaming desserts. In one corner of the room a lady harpist played tinkling melodies.

Father wanted to celebrate, because he had just been promoted. He worked for an electronics company, and after his English started improving, his superiors decided to appoint him to a position more suited to his training. The promotion not only brought a higher salary but was also a tremendous boost to his pride.

Up to then we had eaten only in Chinese restaurants. Although my brother and I were becoming fond of hamburgers, my parents didn’t care much for Western food, other than chow mein.5

120

130

140

150

5. chow mein (chouP mAnP): Chinese-American dish of vegetables and meat served over fried noodles.

T


e VISUALIZETry to visualize the

narrator’s image of a “normal American family” (line 142). Which of the narrator’s descriptions stand out to you the most? Record them in your chart.


Father’s approach to English was a scientific one. Since Chinese verbs have no tense, he was fascinated by the way English verbs changed form according to whether they were in the present, past imperfect, perfect, pluperfect, future, or future perfect tense. He was always making diagrams of verbs and their inflections,3 and he looked for opportunities to show off his mastery of the pluperfect and future perfect tenses, his two favorites. “I shall have finished my project by Monday,” he would say smugly.4

Mother’s approach was to memorize lists of polite phrases that would cover all possible social situations. She was constantly muttering things like “I’m fine, thank you. And you?” Once she accidentally stepped on someone’s foot, and hurriedly blurted, “Oh, that’s quite all right!” Embarrassed by her slip, she resolved to do better next time. So when someone stepped on her foot, she cried, “You’re welcome!”

In our own different ways, we made progress in learning English. But I had another worry, and that was my appearance. My brother didn’t have to worry, since Mother bought him blue jeans for school, and he dressed like all the other boys. But she insisted that girls had to wear skirts. By the time she saw that Meg and the other girls were wearing jeans, it was too late. My school clothes were bought already, and we didn’t have money left to buy new outfits for me. We had too many other things to buy first, like furniture, pots, and pans.

The first time I visited Meg’s house, she took me upstairs to her room, and I wound up trying on her clothes. We were pretty much the same size, since Meg was shorter and thinner than average. Maybe that’s how we became friends in the first place. Wearing Meg’s jeans and T-shirt, I looked at myself in the mirror. I could almost pass for an American—from the back, anyway. At least the kids in school wouldn’t stop and stare at me in the hallways, which was what they did when they saw me in my white blouse and navy blue skirt that went a couple of inches below the knees.

When Meg came to my house, I invited her to try on my Chinese dresses, the ones with a high collar and slits up the sides. Meg’s eyes were bright as she looked at herself in the mirror. She struck several sultry poses, and we nearly fell over laughing.

The dinner party at the Gleasons’ didn’t stop my growing friendship with Meg. Things were getting better for me in other ways too. Mother finally bought me some jeans at the end of the month, when Father got his paycheck. She wasn’t in any hurry about buying them at first, until

80

90

100

110

3. inflections (Gn-flDkPshEnz): different tenses. 4. smugly: with self-satisfaction; self-righteously.

T


SOCIAL STUDIES CONNECTION

The Chinese dress Meg tries on is a cheongsam (chôngQsämP) or qipao (kFPpä-IQ). Cheongsam is from the Cantonese dialect and translates as “long dress.” Qipao is Mandarin for “banner gown.”

Language CoachVerb Forms Mr. Lin is studying verb tenses, the time of action or state of being expressed by a verb. If you struggle with verb tenses, follow the rules below.Tense Use ExamplePresent To express

an action or state of being that is occurring now

Father makes diagrams of verbs.

Past To express an action or state of being that occurred in the past

Father made diagrams of verbs.

Future To express an action or state of being that will occur in the future

Father will make diagrams of verbs tomorrow.

Scan pages 448–449 for examples of present, past, and future verb tenses.


SOCIAL STUDIES CONNECTIONIn most parts of China, the cheongsam is referred to as the qipao. It originated during the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) when China was run by the Manchu from the northeast provinces of Manchuria. When the Manchu came into power, they decreed a new style of clothing, one type of which was a plain long robe. For women, this robe eventually evolved into the qipao, a narrow dress with a high col-lar. The modern, fitted version was developed in Shanghai around 1900.

revisit the big Are people more ALIKE or different?Discuss In lines 102–113, what similarities do the narrator and Meg share? How does each girl react to trying on the other’s clothing? Possible answers: Meg and the narrator are a similar size, they like to try on each other’s clothes, and they like to laugh together. Both of them are curious to see what they will look like wearing the other’s clothing, and they both enjoy posing in front of the mirror.

for english language learnersCulture: Connect [shared-language groups] After students read lines 80–93, have groups answer and discuss these questions:• How did Mr. Lin learn English (lines 80–87)?• How did Mrs. Lin learn English (lines 88–89)?• What was the narrator’s approach to

learning English (lines 74–75)?• What was her brother’s approach to

learning English (lines 71–73)?

Language CoachVerb FormsPossible answers:

Tense Use ExamplePres-ent

To express an action or state of being that is occurring now

“I’m fine, thank you.”


Mother bought him blue jeans. . . .


I’ll be back in five minutes!



TEKS 19A


I worked on her. This is what I did. Since we didn’t have a car in those days, I often ran down to the neighborhood store to pick up things for her. The groceries cost less at a big supermarket, but the closest one was many blocks away. One day, when she ran out of flour, I offered to borrow a bike from our neighbor’s son and buy a ten-pound bag of flour at the big supermarket. I mounted the boy’s bike and waved to Mother. “I’ll be back in five minutes!”

Before I started pedaling, I heard her voice behind me. “You can’t go out in public like that! People can see all the way up to your thighs!”

“I’m sorry,” I said innocently. “I thought you were in a hurry to get the flour.” For dinner we were going to have pot-stickers (fried Chinese dumplings), and we needed a lot of flour.

“Couldn’t you borrow a girl’s bicycle?” complained Mother. “That way your skirt won’t be pushed up.”

“There aren’t too many of those around,” I said. “Almost all the girls wear jeans while riding a bike, so they don’t see any point buying a girl’s bike.”

We didn’t eat pot-stickers that evening, and Mother was thoughtful. Next day we took the bus downtown and she bought me a pair of jeans. In the same week, my brother made the baseball team of his junior high school, Father started taking driving lessons, and Mother discovered rummage sales. We soon got all the furniture we needed, plus a dart board and a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle (fourteen hours later, we discovered that it was a 999-piece jigsaw puzzle). There was hope that the Lins might become a normal American family after all. e

Then came our dinner at the Lakeview Restaurant.The Lakeview was an expensive restaurant, one of those places where

a headwaiter dressed in tails conducted you to your seat, and the only light came from candles and flaming desserts. In one corner of the room a lady harpist played tinkling melodies.

Father wanted to celebrate, because he had just been promoted. He worked for an electronics company, and after his English started improving, his superiors decided to appoint him to a position more suited to his training. The promotion not only brought a higher salary but was also a tremendous boost to his pride.

Up to then we had eaten only in Chinese restaurants. Although my brother and I were becoming fond of hamburgers, my parents didn’t care much for Western food, other than chow mein.5

120

130

140

150

5. chow mein (chouP mAnP): Chinese-American dish of vegetables and meat served over fried noodles.

T


e VISUALIZETry to visualize the

narrator’s image of a “normal American family” (line 142). Which of the narrator’s descriptions stand out to you the most? Record them in your chart.


Father’s approach to English was a scientific one. Since Chinese verbs have no tense, he was fascinated by the way English verbs changed form according to whether they were in the present, past imperfect, perfect, pluperfect, future, or future perfect tense. He was always making diagrams of verbs and their inflections,3 and he looked for opportunities to show off his mastery of the pluperfect and future perfect tenses, his two favorites. “I shall have finished my project by Monday,” he would say smugly.4

Mother’s approach was to memorize lists of polite phrases that would cover all possible social situations. She was constantly muttering things like “I’m fine, thank you. And you?” Once she accidentally stepped on someone’s foot, and hurriedly blurted, “Oh, that’s quite all right!” Embarrassed by her slip, she resolved to do better next time. So when someone stepped on her foot, she cried, “You’re welcome!”

In our own different ways, we made progress in learning English. But I had another worry, and that was my appearance. My brother didn’t have to worry, since Mother bought him blue jeans for school, and he dressed like all the other boys. But she insisted that girls had to wear skirts. By the time she saw that Meg and the other girls were wearing jeans, it was too late. My school clothes were bought already, and we didn’t have money left to buy new outfits for me. We had too many other things to buy first, like furniture, pots, and pans.

The first time I visited Meg’s house, she took me upstairs to her room, and I wound up trying on her clothes. We were pretty much the same size, since Meg was shorter and thinner than average. Maybe that’s how we became friends in the first place. Wearing Meg’s jeans and T-shirt, I looked at myself in the mirror. I could almost pass for an American—from the back, anyway. At least the kids in school wouldn’t stop and stare at me in the hallways, which was what they did when they saw me in my white blouse and navy blue skirt that went a couple of inches below the knees.

When Meg came to my house, I invited her to try on my Chinese dresses, the ones with a high collar and slits up the sides. Meg’s eyes were bright as she looked at herself in the mirror. She struck several sultry poses, and we nearly fell over laughing.

The dinner party at the Gleasons’ didn’t stop my growing friendship with Meg. Things were getting better for me in other ways too. Mother finally bought me some jeans at the end of the month, when Father got his paycheck. She wasn’t in any hurry about buying them at first, until

80

90

100

110

3. inflections (Gn-flDkPshEnz): different tenses. 4. smugly: with self-satisfaction; self-righteously.

T


SOCIAL STUDIES CONNECTION

The Chinese dress Meg tries on is a cheongsam (chôngQsämP) or qipao (kFPpä-IQ). Cheongsam is from the Cantonese dialect and translates as “long dress.” Qipao is Mandarin for “banner gown.”

Language CoachVerb Forms Mr. Lin is studying verb tenses, the time of action or state of being expressed by a verb. If you struggle with verb tenses, follow the rules below.Tense Use ExamplePresent To express

an action or state of being that is occurring now

Father makes diagrams of verbs.


Father made diagrams of verbs.


Father will make diagrams of verbs tomorrow.

Scan pages 448–449 for examples of present, past, and future verb tenses.


for english language learnersVocabulary Support: Context Clues Make sure students understand that the words promoted (line 148) and promotion (line 151) refer to Mr. Lin’s job. Have students read lines 148–152. Discuss what the words might mean. Then have students use Word Squares to determine the meanings of the words superiors, appoint, position, and suited.

BEST PRACTICES TOOLKIT—TransparencyWord Squares p. E10

for struggling readersDeveloping Reading Fluency Use the para-graphs in lines 94–109 to help students prac-tice reading narration. Model an appropriate reading of these paragraphs as they listen. Have students work in pairs to read through the text, practice correct pronunciations, and then take turns reading the text aloud.

RESOURCE MANAGER—Copy MasterReading Fluency p. 31

tiered discussion promptsIn lines 114–142, use these prompts to help students understand how the narrator cleverly gets what she wants:

Connect The narrator wants jeans so that she can be like the other kids at school. Name something like this that you have wanted. Why did you want it? Students may name popular or trendy items that they wanted mainly because others had them. Infer What might Mother be thinking about during dinner (line 135)? Possible answer: She is probably reevaluating the importance of buying jeans for her daughter.Evaluate What idea does the narrator communicate to the reader when she uses the word “innocently” in line 127? Possible answer: The narrator planned this scenario in order to make her mother realize the impor-tance of buying her a pair of jeans.

e Model the Strategy: visualizeDraw the chart from page 443 on the board to help students identify details that help them get a mental picture. Ask them to reread lines 135–142 and then to fill in their chart during discussion.

Possible answers:


Details

jeans, baseball, driving, furniture, dart board, jigsaw puzzle

What I Visualize

Family crowding around a puzzle dressed in American clothes or riding in a car


TEKS RC-6(C)

Model the Strategy: visualize


But this was a special occasion, and Father asked his coworkers to recommend a really elegant restaurant. So there we were at the Lakeview, stumbling after the headwaiter in the murky dining room.

At our table we were handed our menus, and they were so big that to read mine I almost had to stand up again. But why bother? It was mostly in French, anyway. f

Father, being an engineer, was always systematic. He took out a pocket French dictionary. “They told me that most of the items would be in French, so I came prepared.” He even had a pocket flashlight, the size of a marking pen. While Mother held the flashlight over the menu, he looked up the items that were in French.

“Pâté en croûte,” he muttered. “Let’s see . . . pâté is paste . . . croûte is crust . . . hmm . . . a paste in crust.”

The waiter stood looking patient. I squirmed and died at least fifty times.At long last Father gave up. “Why don’t we just order four complete

dinners at random?” he suggested.“Isn’t that risky?” asked Mother. “The French eat some rather peculiar

things, I’ve heard.”“A Chinese can eat anything a Frenchman can eat,” Father declared.The soup arrived in a plate. How do you get soup up from a plate?

I glanced at the other diners, but the ones at the nearby tables were not on their soup course, while the more distant ones were invisible in the darkness.

Fortunately my parents had studied books on Western etiquette before they came to America. “Tilt your plate,” whispered my mother. “It’s easier to spoon the soup up that way.”

She was right. Tilting the plate did the trick. But the etiquette book didn’t say anything about what you did after the soup reached your lips. As any respectable Chinese knows, the correct way to eat your soup is to slurp. This helps to cool the liquid and prevent you from burning your lips. It also shows your appreciation.

We showed our appreciation. Shloop, went my father. Shloop, went my mother. Shloop, shloop, went my brother, who was the hungriest.

The lady harpist stopped playing to take a rest. And in the silence, our family’s consumption of soup suddenly seemed unnaturally loud. You know how it sounds on a rocky beach when the tide goes out and the water drains from all those little pools? They go shloop, shloop, shloop. That was the Lin family, eating soup.

At the next table a waiter was pouring wine. When a large shloop reached him, he froze. The bottle continued to pour, and red wine flooded the tabletop and into the lap of a customer. Even the customer didn’t notice anything at first, being also hypnotized by the shloop, shloop, shloop.

160

170

180

190


etiquette (DtPG-kDtQ) n. the practice of social manners

consumption (kEn-sOmpPshEn) n. the act of taking in, eating, or drinking consume v.

f HYPERBOLEOne way a writer can add humor to a story is to use hyperbole, an exaggeration of the truth for emphasis or humorous effect. The use of hyperbole adds to the humorous tone of this story. Lines 159–160 contain an example of hyperbole. The narrator says the menu was was so big “I almost had to stand up” to read it. Read ahead to lines 170–197 and find at least two more examples of hyperbole.

TEKS 8


It was too much. “I need to go to the toilet,” I mumbled, jumping to my feet. A waiter, sensing my urgency, quickly directed me to the ladies’ room.

I splashed cold water on my burning face, and as I dried myself with a paper towel, I stared into the mirror. In this perfumed ladies’ room, with its pink-and-silver wallpaper and marbled sinks, I looked completely out of place. What was I doing here? What was our family doing in the Lakeview Restaurant? In America? g

The door to the ladies’ room opened. A woman came in and glanced curiously at me. I retreated into one of the toilet cubicles and latched the door.

Time passed—maybe half an hour, maybe an hour. Then I heard the door open again, and my mother’s voice. “Are you in there? You’re not sick, are you?”

There was real concern in her voice. A girl can’t leave her family just because they slurp their soup. Besides, the toilet cubicle had a few drawbacks as a permanent residence. “I’m all right,” I said, undoing the latch.

Mother didn’t tell me how the rest of the dinner went, and I didn’t want to know. In the weeks following, I managed to push the whole thing into the back of my mind, where it jumped out at me only a few times a day. Even now, I turn hot all over when I think of the Lakeview Restaurant. h

200

210

220


h VISUALIZE

Many events embarrass the narrator during the dinner at the Lakeview Restaurant. Record the details and what you visualized in your chart.

g

SENSORY LANGUAGEWriters use sensory language to help you imagine what their characters see, feel, hear, smell, and taste. Reread lines 201–205. Write down the phrases in this paragraph that include sensory language and identify which of the five senses each phrase appeals to.

TEKS 8

Does this meal look inviting or intimidating? Explain.

TX_L06PE-u04s01-Slurp.indd 451 2/13/09 1:25:56 PMdifferentiated instructionfor struggling readersComprehension: Analysis [paired option] Have students use Questioning the Author to discuss the text on page 450. Have students work in pairs to read the text and discuss it. Students should develop their own queries, but if they are having difficulty, suggest that they focus on these questions:• What situation is the narrator in?• What do you think the narrator will

do next?

• What is the tone of this section?Encourage students to follow up by reading page 451. Have them discuss their reactions.

BEST PRACTICES TOOLKIT—TransparencyQuestioning the Author p. D21

V O C A B U L A R Y

own the word• etiquette: Have students complete

this sentence: Her parents said Maggie needed to study etiquette after she . . . . Possible answer: started talking with her mouth full

• consumption: Ask students to identify their favorite food for consumption. Possible answers: pizza, hamburgers, cake

f hyperbole

Explain that hyperbole can draw atten-tion to something that seems out of place or doesn’t fit, such as a menu that is much too large for a child. Possible answers: how it sounds on a rocky beach, wine flooded the table top, waiter being hypnotized


revisit the big Are people more ALIKE or different?Discuss Have a volunteer read aloud line 174. Ask how this statement supports the idea that people around the world share similari-ties. Possible answers: Mr. Lin means that the Chinese are as adventurous as the French. You don’t have to be from a certain place to want to try new things.

450 unit 4

TEKS 2

TEKS 8



It was too much. “I need to go to the toilet,” I mumbled, jumping to my feet. A waiter, sensing my urgency, quickly directed me to the ladies’ room.

I splashed cold water on my burning face, and as I dried myself with a paper towel, I stared into the mirror. In this perfumed ladies’ room, with its pink-and-silver wallpaper and marbled sinks, I looked completely out of place. What was I doing here? What was our family doing in the Lakeview Restaurant? In America? g

The door to the ladies’ room opened. A woman came in and glanced curiously at me. I retreated into one of the toilet cubicles and latched the door.

Time passed—maybe half an hour, maybe an hour. Then I heard the door open again, and my mother’s voice. “Are you in there? You’re not sick, are you?”

There was real concern in her voice. A girl can’t leave her family just because they slurp their soup. Besides, the toilet cubicle had a few drawbacks as a permanent residence. “I’m all right,” I said, undoing the latch.

Mother didn’t tell me how the rest of the dinner went, and I didn’t want to know. In the weeks following, I managed to push the whole thing into the back of my mind, where it jumped out at me only a few times a day. Even now, I turn hot all over when I think of the Lakeview Restaurant. h

200

210

220


h VISUALIZE

Many events embarrass the narrator during the dinner at the Lakeview Restaurant. Record the details and what you visualized in your chart.

g

SENSORY LANGUAGEWriters use sensory language to help you imagine what their characters see, feel, hear, smell, and taste. Reread lines 201–205. Write down the phrases in this paragraph that include sensory language and identify which of the five senses each phrase appeals to.

TEKS 8

Does this meal look inviting or intimidating? Explain.


Targeted Passage2

for english language learnersVocabulary: Idioms and Sayings Use New Word Analysis to teach these expressions:• we were handed (line 159), “we were given”• I squirmed and died at least fifty times

(line 169), “I was embarrassed”• he froze (line 195), “he was still” • how the rest of the dinner went (line 216),

“what took place”

BEST PRACTICES TOOLKIT—TransparencyNew Word Analysis p. E8

for struggling readers2 Targeted Passage [Lines 198–215]

This passage presents an emotional climax: the narrator is overcome with embarrassment and hides in the restaurant’s bathroom.• Why does the narrator leave the table?

(line 198)• What is the narrator thinking about as she

looks at herself in the mirror? (lines 203–205)• Why does her mother enter the bathroom?

(lines 210–212)

g sensory language

Note that sensory language appeals directly to one of the five senses. Review the five senses with students: sight, taste, touch, smell, hearing.

Possible answers: cold water—touch; burn-ing face—touch; stared into the mirror—sight; perfumed ladies room—smell


h visualizePossible answer:


Analyze Visuals

Students’ answers will vary. Some may say that the meal looks inviting because the foods are familiar and appealing to them. Others will say it is intimidating because the food looks unusual or because they wouldn’t know the proper way to eat such a meal.

Details

Using a flashlight and dictionary for the menu

Family slurps soup

What I Visualize

A dark restaurant with a lot of people staring at the Lin family.

The Lin family happily slurping soup while the waiter and others stare at them


TEKS 8

e

TEKS RC-6(C)

TEKS 13


260

270

280

290

At first I was too busy enjoying my food to notice how the guests were doing. But soon I remembered my duties. Sometimes guests were too polite to help themselves and you had to serve them with more food.

I glanced at Meg, to see if she needed more food, and my eyes nearly popped out at the sight of her plate. It was piled with food: the sweet-and-sour meat pushed right against the chicken shreds, and the chicken sauce ran into the prawns. She had been taking food from a second dish before she finished eating her helping from the first!

Horrified, I turned to look at Mrs. Gleason. She was dumping rice out of her bowl and putting it on her dinner plate. Then she ladled prawns and gravy on top of the rice and mixed everything together, the way you mix sand, gravel, and cement to make concrete.

I couldn’t bear to look any longer, and I turned to Mr. Gleason. He was chasing a pea around his plate. Several times he got it to the edge, but when he tried to pick it up with his chopsticks, it rolled back toward the center of the plate again. Finally he put down his chopsticks and picked up the pea with his fingers. He really did! A grown man! i

All of us, our family and the Chinese guests, stopped eating to watch the activities of the Gleasons. I wanted to giggle. Then I caught my mother’s eyes on me. She frowned and shook her head slightly, and I understood the message: the Gleasons were not used to Chinese ways, and they were just coping the best they could. For some reason I thought of celery strings.

When the main courses were finished, Mother brought out a platter of fruit. “I hope you weren’t expecting a sweet dessert,” she said. “Since the Chinese don’t eat dessert, I didn’t think to prepare any.”

“Oh, I couldn’t possibly eat dessert!” cried Mrs. Gleason. “I’m simply stuffed!”

Meg had different ideas. When the table was cleared, she announced that she and I were going for a walk. “I don’t know about you, but I feel like dessert,” she told me, when we were outside. “Come on, there’s a Dairy Queen down the street. I could use a big chocolate milkshake!”

Although I didn’t really want anything more to eat, I insisted on paying for the milkshakes. After all, I was still hostess.

Meg got her large chocolate milkshake and I had a small one. Even so, she was finishing hers while I was only half done. Toward the end she pulled hard on her straws and went shloop, shloop.

“Do you always slurp when you eat a milkshake?” I asked, before I could stop myself.

Meg grinned. “Sure. All Americans slurp.” � j


i TONE

Reread lines 257–273. Is it the Gleasons’ actions, the narrator’s responses, or both that add humor to the story? Explain.


j TONE AND IMAGERY

What does the tone and imagery in lines 290–295 tell you about how the narrator feels after her parents’ dinner party?


But by the time we had been in this country for three months, our family was definitely making progress toward becoming Americanized. I remember my parents’ first PTA6

meeting. Father wore a neat suit and tie, and Mother put on her first pair of high heels. She stumbled only once. They met my homeroom teacher and beamed as she told them that I would make honor roll soon at the rate I was going. Of course Chinese etiquette forced Father to say that I was a very stupid girl and Mother to protest that the teacher was showing favoritism toward me. But I could tell they were both very proud.

The day came when my parents announced that they wanted to give a dinner party. We had invited Chinese friends to eat with us before, but this dinner was going to be different. In addition to a Chinese-American family, we were going to invite the Gleasons.

“Gee, I can hardly wait to have dinner at your house,” Meg said to me. “I just love Chinese food.”

That was a relief. Mother was a good cook, but I wasn’t sure if people who ate sour cream would also eat chicken gizzards7 stewed in soy sauce.

Mother decided not to take a chance with chicken gizzards. Since we had Western guests, she set the table with large dinner plates, which we never used in Chinese meals. In fact we didn’t use individual plates at all, but picked up food from the platters in the middle of the table and brought it directly to our rice bowls. Following the practice of Chinese-American restaurants, Mother also placed large serving spoons on the platters.

The dinner started well. Mrs. Gleason exclaimed at the beautifully arranged dishes of food: the colorful candied fruit in the sweet-and-sour pork dish, the noodle-thin shreds of chicken meat stir-fried with tiny peas, and the glistening pink prawns8 in a ginger sauce.

230

240

250

6. PTA: Parent Teacher Association. 7. gizzards: A gizzard is the muscular pouch behind a bird’s stomach that helps with its digestion. 8. prawns (prônz): large seafood, similar to shrimp.

B

T


GRAMMAR IN

CONTEXTA clause is a group of words that has a subject and a verb. An independent clause can stand alone as a sentence, but a dependent clause, such as “Following the practice of Chinese-American restaurants” in lines 251–252, cannot. Notice that the writer avoids using sentence fragments by joining all dependent clauses with independent clauses.


tiered discussion promptsIn lines 239–256, use these prompts to help students understand the narrator’s misgivings about the upcoming dinner party:

Recall Why is the narrator relieved when Meg says she’s looking forward to dinner? Possible answer: She had been worried that the Gleasons wouldn’t like Chinese food.Analyze How does the narrator’s mother adapt her dinner preparations to appeal to American customs and tastes? Possible answer: She decides not to serve chicken gizzards, and she sets the table with large dinner plates and serving spoons.Evaluate What impression of the food does the author’s description create? Give examples. Possible answer: The author describes the food with details such as “colorful candied fruit,” noodle-thin shreds of chicken,” “tiny peas,” and “glistening pink prawns.” These details give the impression that the food is carefully prepared and tasty.

grammar in context

Dependent Clauses Note that a depen-dent clause cannot stand alone and needs other clauses to make its meaning clear. Ask students to add a clause to make the following dependent clause clear: After everyone sat down . . . .Possible answer: they began to talk about the weather

for struggling readersComprehension: Comparisons [paired option] Help students see that the author compares Chinese and American customs throughout the story. Have students read lines 221–281. Then have them work in pairs to create Venn Diagrams comparing Chinese and American customs at mealtimes.

BEST PRACTICES TOOLKIT—TransparencyVenn Diagram p. A26


Chinese Customs American Customs

Eat from dinner plates. Put many foods together.

BothEat a

variety of foods.

Eat from rice bowls.Eat from one platter at a time.Bring food to rice bowl.


TEKS 19C


260

270

280

290

At first I was too busy enjoying my food to notice how the guests were doing. But soon I remembered my duties. Sometimes guests were too polite to help themselves and you had to serve them with more food.

I glanced at Meg, to see if she needed more food, and my eyes nearly popped out at the sight of her plate. It was piled with food: the sweet-and-sour meat pushed right against the chicken shreds, and the chicken sauce ran into the prawns. She had been taking food from a second dish before she finished eating her helping from the first!

Horrified, I turned to look at Mrs. Gleason. She was dumping rice out of her bowl and putting it on her dinner plate. Then she ladled prawns and gravy on top of the rice and mixed everything together, the way you mix sand, gravel, and cement to make concrete.

I couldn’t bear to look any longer, and I turned to Mr. Gleason. He was chasing a pea around his plate. Several times he got it to the edge, but when he tried to pick it up with his chopsticks, it rolled back toward the center of the plate again. Finally he put down his chopsticks and picked up the pea with his fingers. He really did! A grown man! i

All of us, our family and the Chinese guests, stopped eating to watch the activities of the Gleasons. I wanted to giggle. Then I caught my mother’s eyes on me. She frowned and shook her head slightly, and I understood the message: the Gleasons were not used to Chinese ways, and they were just coping the best they could. For some reason I thought of celery strings.

When the main courses were finished, Mother brought out a platter of fruit. “I hope you weren’t expecting a sweet dessert,” she said. “Since the Chinese don’t eat dessert, I didn’t think to prepare any.”

“Oh, I couldn’t possibly eat dessert!” cried Mrs. Gleason. “I’m simply stuffed!”

Meg had different ideas. When the table was cleared, she announced that she and I were going for a walk. “I don’t know about you, but I feel like dessert,” she told me, when we were outside. “Come on, there’s a Dairy Queen down the street. I could use a big chocolate milkshake!”

Although I didn’t really want anything more to eat, I insisted on paying for the milkshakes. After all, I was still hostess.

Meg got her large chocolate milkshake and I had a small one. Even so, she was finishing hers while I was only half done. Toward the end she pulled hard on her straws and went shloop, shloop.

“Do you always slurp when you eat a milkshake?” I asked, before I could stop myself.

Meg grinned. “Sure. All Americans slurp.” � j


i TONE

Reread lines 257–273. Is it the Gleasons’ actions, the narrator’s responses, or both that add humor to the story? Explain.


j TONE AND IMAGERY

What does the tone and imagery in lines 290–295 tell you about how the narrator feels after her parents’ dinner party?


But by the time we had been in this country for three months, our family was definitely making progress toward becoming Americanized. I remember my parents’ first PTA6

meeting. Father wore a neat suit and tie, and Mother put on her first pair of high heels. She stumbled only once. They met my homeroom teacher and beamed as she told them that I would make honor roll soon at the rate I was going. Of course Chinese etiquette forced Father to say that I was a very stupid girl and Mother to protest that the teacher was showing favoritism toward me. But I could tell they were both very proud.

The day came when my parents announced that they wanted to give a dinner party. We had invited Chinese friends to eat with us before, but this dinner was going to be different. In addition to a Chinese-American family, we were going to invite the Gleasons.

“Gee, I can hardly wait to have dinner at your house,” Meg said to me. “I just love Chinese food.”

That was a relief. Mother was a good cook, but I wasn’t sure if people who ate sour cream would also eat chicken gizzards7 stewed in soy sauce.

Mother decided not to take a chance with chicken gizzards. Since we had Western guests, she set the table with large dinner plates, which we never used in Chinese meals. In fact we didn’t use individual plates at all, but picked up food from the platters in the middle of the table and brought it directly to our rice bowls. Following the practice of Chinese-American restaurants, Mother also placed large serving spoons on the platters.

The dinner started well. Mrs. Gleason exclaimed at the beautifully arranged dishes of food: the colorful candied fruit in the sweet-and-sour pork dish, the noodle-thin shreds of chicken meat stir-fried with tiny peas, and the glistening pink prawns8 in a ginger sauce.

230

240

250

6. PTA: Parent Teacher Association. 7. gizzards: A gizzard is the muscular pouch behind a bird’s stomach that helps with its digestion. 8. prawns (prônz): large seafood, similar to shrimp.

B

T


GRAMMAR IN

CONTEXTA clause is a group of words that has a subject and a verb. An independent clause can stand alone as a sentence, but a dependent clause, such as “Following the practice of Chinese-American restaurants” in lines 251–252, cannot. Notice that the writer avoids using sentence fragments by joining all dependent clauses with independent clauses.


for struggling readers3 Targeted Passage [Lines 274–295]

This passage concludes the story by illustrat-ing how much the narrator has learned about people.• Why does the narrator want to giggle?

(lines 275–278)• Why does her mother frown and shake her

head? (lines 278–279)• Why is the narrator surprised when Meg

slurps her milkshake? (lines 293–295)

for advanced learners/pre–apAnalyze Author’s Perspective [paired option] Ask students to reread Meet the Author on page 443. Have student pairs dis-cuss how the author’s background shaped her perspective—her attitudes and beliefs. Ask students how the author’s experiences may have influenced her writing—particularly “The All-American Slurp.”

V O C A B U L A R Y

own the word cope: Ask students to identify a situa-

tion in which they were coping. Possible answer: I was just coping when we went camping this summer.

i tone

Possible answer: Both the Gleasons’ actions and the narrator’s responses add humor to the story. The author uses the narrator’s comments about Meg’s plate and about the way Mrs. Gleason mixed her food together to add humor to the Gleasons’ actions.


j tone and imagery

Possible answer: The imagery recalls the Lins slurping soup. The tone is relaxed, sug-gesting that the narrator is still surprised at American etiquette, yet happy to find that some customs are shared.


selection wrap–upREAD WITH A PURPOSE Ask students what they think the narrator has learned about adapting to a new culture. Possible answer: She has learned how difficult it is to adjust to new customs and etiquette.

CRITIQUE Ask students to consider the tone of the story. How was humor used? How would the story have been different if the author had used a more serious tone?

INDEPENDENT READING Students may also enjoy reading Lensey

Namioka’s Yang the Third and Her Impossible Family, a novel about characters who are also adjusting to life in a new culture.

Targeted Passage3


TEKS 2

TEKS 8

TEKS 8

tone and imagery


Practice and Apply

Are people more ALIKE or different?

unit 4: sensory language, imagery, and style

TX_L06PE-u04s01-arSlur.indd 454 10/1/09 2:54:54 PM

consumption

cope

etiquette

lavishly

mortified

revolting

the all-american slurp


For preliminary support of post-reading questions, use these copy masters:

RESOURCE MANAGER—Copy MastersReading Check p. 28 Tone p. 21Question Support p. 29For additional questions, see page 14.

answersComprehension 1. raw vegetables and sour cream dip 2. Mr. Lin studies and practices grammar; Mrs.

Lin memorizes phrases; the brother learns English from his friends; the narrator thinks carefully before speaking.

3. In China, slurping is the correct way to eat soup and it shows appreciation.

Literary AnalysisPossible answers:4. teks focus Visualize Accept any

answer that uses sensory details from the text to provide visual pictures and that relates them to the Lins’ experiences.

5. teks focus Analyze Imagery Accept any answer that lists sensory images from the text and relates them to the humor in the story.

6. Similarities: Both mothers make too much food; both girls are about the same size; both families embarrass themselves eating unfamiliar food; Meg slurps milkshakes and the narrator slurps soup. Differences: The narrator has a brother and Meg doesn’t; the families eat different foods. By the end of the story, the narrator is more focused on the similarities than the differences.

7. teks focus Evaluate Tone Thoughts: (narrator) The menu is so big that she almost has to stand up to read it; she “died at least fifty times” from embar-rassment; the cubicle in the restaurant wouldn’t make a suitable residence. Words: (Mrs. Lin) “Oh, that’s quite all right!” “You’re welcome!” Actions: (the Lins) pack themselves into a sofa; pull the strings from the celery; slurp their food loudly

Extension a nd Challenge 8. SOCIAL STUDIES CONNECTION Students’ summaries should cover as many

details as possible from the “American Life-styles & Habits” article on page 457. For ex-ample, students may include details about how Americans encourage guests to “make themselves at home” by asking for snacks if they are hungry or helping themselves to food if it is not offered.

Are people more ALIKE or different? Accept any answer that addresses the question and uses text details to support personal opinions.


TEKS 8, RC-6(C)

TX_L06TE-u04s1-arame.indd 1 10/5/09 4:40:42 PM

Are people more ALIKE or different?

unit 4: sensory language, imagery, and style


consumption

cope

etiquette

lavishly

mortified

revolting

the all-american slurp

TX_L06PE-u04s01-arSlur.indd 455 9/25/09 7:43:59 AMdifferentiated instruction

Keywords direct students to a WordSharp tutorial on thinkcentral.com or to other types of vocabulary practice and review.

Interactive Vocabularyfor english language learnersVocabulary Strategy Have students work in pairs to rewrite the five Practice sentences, using the same simile. For example, “She carried her art project as gingerly as if it were a nest of bird eggs.” Ask volunteers to share one of their similes with the class.

for advanced learners/pre–apVocabulary Strategy Challenge students to write a poem using at least three similes.

answersVocabulary in Context

vocabulary practice 1. (b) a spoiled sandwich 2. (a) a generous amount 3. (c) falling down in public 4. (b) writing a thank-you note 5. (c) eating lunch 6. (c) manage stress

RESOURCE MANAGER—Copy MasterVocabulary Practice p. 26

academic vocabulary in writingDiscuss the use of sensory language to increase understanding. Ask students to con-sider the ways that sensory language makes a scene come alive. Sample sentence: The sensory language contributes to a distinctive picture of the Lins in the French restaurant.

vocabulary strategy: similes as context clues • Have students identify what is being

compared in each sentence. • Encourage students to identify what the sim-

ile is describing and then think of a synonym for the boldfaced word in each sentence.

Possible answers: 1. quietly; carefully 2. appeared; threatened 3. small; cramped 4. puzzling; mysterious

5. awkward; clumsy

RESOURCE MANAGER—Copy MasterVocabulary Strategy p. 27


TEKS 2B

TX_L06TE-u04s1-arame.indd 455 11/2/09 8:43:05 AM

Conventions in Writing grammar in context: Avoid Clauses As FragmentsA clause is a group of words that has a subject and a verb. If a clause states a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence, it is called an independent clause. Fragments, or incomplete sentences, occur when dependent clauses (subordinate clauses) are used on their own. To correct such a fragment, simply join the dependent clause to an independent clause. Here is an example with the independent clause highlighted in yellow and the dependent clause highlighted in green:

Original: I put down my chopsticks. Because everyone was staring. Revised: I put down my chopsticks because everyone was staring.

PRACTICE Find four fragments in the following paragraph. Then fix the fragments by correctly combining independent and dependent clauses.

The Lins invited us to a Chinese dinner at their house. Because we had them over for dinner. I wasn’t expecting any surprises. Since we ate at Chinese restaurants all the time. I piled a heap of the sweet-and-sour meat on my plate with all the other food. As Mrs. Lin passed the dish around. Most of the food was pretty good. Dad didn’t embarrass me. Although he picked up a pea with his fingers.

For more help with independent and dependent clauses, see page R62 in the Grammar Handbook.

reading-writing connectionBroaden your understanding of “The All-American Slurp” by responding to this prompt. Then use the revising tip to improve your writing.

YOUR

TURN

Extended Response: Write About EtiquetteThe Lin family learned American etiquette the hard way. Read “American Lifestyles and Habits” on page 457. In two or three paragraphs, explain what information from the article would have helped the Lins.

Review your response. Have you used any fragments, or incomplete sentences? If so, revise your writing.

writing prompt revising tip

Go to thinkcentral.com.KEYWORD: HML6-456

InteractiveRevision


ORAL AND WRITTEN CONVENTIONS 19C Use complete simple and compound sentences.



Assess and ReteachAssessDIAGNOSTIC AND SELECTION TESTS

Selection Tests A, B/C pp. 127–128, 129–130Interactive Selection Test on thinkcentral.com

ReteachLevel Up Online Tutorials on thinkcentral.comReteaching Worksheets on thinkcentral.com

Literaure Lesson 37; Grammar Lesson 1

for struggling writersStudents may organize their information this way:• First paragraph: Summarize eating habits

in America.• Second and third paragraphs: Focus on

two situations the Lins had difficulty with and write about how the article suggests dealing with these situations.

All of the interactive tools and features on WriteSmart are also available online at thinkcentral.com—in the Writing Center.

Writing OnlineThe following tools are available online at thinkcentral.com and on WriteSmart CD-ROM: • Interactive Graphic Organizers• Interactive Student Models• Interactive Revision LessonsFor additional grammar instruction, see GrammarNotes on thinkcentral.com.

Writing Online

Conventions in Writing

grammar in contextRemind students that dependent clauses begin with subordinating conjunctions such as because, if, when, and as.Possible answer: The Lins invited us to a Chinese dinner at their house because we had them over for dinner. I wasn’t expecting any surprises since we ate at Chinese restaurants all the time. As Mrs. Lin passed the dish around, I piled a heap of the sweet-and-sour meat on my plate with all the other food. Most of the food was pretty good. Although he picked up a pea with his fingers, Dad didn’t embarrass me.

RESOURCE MANAGER—Copy MasterAvoid Clauses as Fragments p. 30

reading-writing connectionHave students choose two points from the article and relate them to examples from “The All-American Slurp.”

456 unit 4

TEKS 19C

TX_L06TE-u04s1-arame 456TX_L06TE-u04s1-arame 456 2/20/09 12:13:56 PM2/20/09 12:13:56 PM

Reading for Information

reading for information 457

American Lifestyles & Habits Project Harmony

Etiquette and traditions for guests in an American familyThere are some significant differences between cultures concerning etiquette and hospitality. The role of the guest is quite different in America than it is in other countries. In America, guests are generally urged to “make themselves at home.” Americans believe that both guests and hosts are most comfortable when neither is anxious about being too polite or reserved. For instance, if you are hungry you should not wait for your host to offer you food. It’s perfectly normal to ask for a snack, or to make one yourself! . . .

The types of food that Americans eat shock many people and it sometimes takes time to adjust. If you are longing for some “normal” food, you should offer to cook a national meal. Americans are almost always interested in trying new foods and would be honored if their guest(s) offered to cook a dinner.

When you are sitting at the table, you will generally have to help yourself. You may be offered food once, and if you refuse, it will not be offered again. As mentioned before, Americans tend to give honest, straightforward answers rather than feign politeness. While in your country it may be considered polite to answer “no” when food is first offered, American hosts will take “no” as exactly that and will not offer you the food again. If there is something additional that you would like at the table, you should ask for it or just take it.

When it comes to food, you may find that Americans■ Love vegetarian, low-fat

salads with different salad dressings

■ Eat most of their food quickly, and often take a meal with them to eat en route somewhere

■ Put ice in almost all beverages—one American favorite is ICED tea!

■ Use lots of spices and often like ethnic foods

■ Eat dinner as the main meal of the day

■ Often eat little or no breakfast—so be sure to ask for food in the morning

ONLINE ARTICLE In “The All-American Slurp,” you read about a Chinese family adjusting to customs in the United States. The following article offers advice to visitors and immigrants about American etiquette.


TX_L06PE-u04s01-c2AmLi.indd 457 2/13/09 1:25:16 PM

connectThis selection provides support for the Writing Prompt on page 456. You can also use it as a mini-lesson on reading for information.

reading for informationPoint out that the online article “American Lifestyles & Habits” is produced by an orga-nization called Project Harmony. Encourage students to preview the article by reading the heading and the sidebar information. Ask what they expect to read about in this article. What is the tone of the sidebar? Possible answers: The article gives information about etiquette and what guests from other countries should expect in American homes. The tone of the sidebar seems friendly to people from other countries and assumes that they will find many American customs unusual.

tiered discussion promptsUse these prompts to help students under-stand that people from other countries face many of the same challenges as the Lins did in “The All-American Slurp”:

Connect Do you think this article accurately represents American customs and manners? Why or why not? Most students will say that the article does reflect the way most Ameri-cans eat and the way they treat their guests. Students may say that this is the way they behave in their own homes. Infer Have students explain this line from the article: “The types of food that Ameri-cans eat shock many people. . . .” Possible answer: People from other countries may not be used to the convenience foods and fast foods that Americans eat.Synthesize What advice would you add to this article? Possible answers: how to set the table, how to pass food at the table, good conversation topics

for struggling readersAccess Prior Knowledge [small-group option] Before reading, encourage students to discuss their understanding of etiquette. What manners do they observe in their own homes?

for advanced learners/pre–apAnalyze Tone [paired option] Have student pairs discuss the tone of this article. Ask them how the tone of the article would have been different if it had been written by a teenager, a mother, or a teacher.



TX_L06TE-u04s1-rfiame.indd 457 10/1/09 3:00:09 PM

Documents

Focus and Motivate The All-American Slurp · PDF fileFocus and Motivate Selection Resources Meet the Author ... mother ended the ﬁ nes when she ... situation by using a humorous