1. Lines 23-57
1. Connect How does it feel when you’re a guest in someone’s home and they offer you something to eat that you dislike or have never tried?
Students may say that this is an awkward situation because no guest wants to offend his or her host by refusing to eat the host’s food.
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2. Lines 23-57
2. Compare How are the Lins different from their hosts? How are they similar?
Possible answers: The families have different food customs. For example, the Lins have never eaten raw vegetables and dislike dairy products. However, they are similar because they are both trying to be gracious and to understand each other’s customs.
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3. Lines
1. 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.
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4. Lines
2. 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.
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5. Lines
3. 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 importance of buying her a pair of jeans.
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6. Lines
1. Connect What are some different ways of reacting to an embarrassing situation?
Students may mention making a joke and laughing about the situation—or trying to escape, like the narrator.
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7. Lines 198-220 2. Infer How does the narrator feel? Why?
Possible answers: She is embarrassed because everyone in the restaurant seems to have noticed her family’s table manners. She feels out of place and different from everyone around her.
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8. Lines
3. Analyze When her mother shows concern, what does the narrator realize about the situation?
Possible answer: The narrator realizes that she has upset her mother and made a bigger issue out of the situation than she should. She reasons that she “can’t leave her family just because they slurp their soup.”
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9. Lines
1. 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.
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10. Lines
2. Analyze How does the narrator’s mother adapt her dinner preparations to appeal to American customs and tastes?
Possible answers: She decides not to serve chicken gizzards, and she sets the table with large dinner plates and serving spoons.
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11. Lines
3. Evaluate What impression of the food does the author’s description create? Give examples.
Possible answers: 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.
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12. 1. 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 Americans eat and the way they treat their guests. Students may say that this is the way they behave in their own homes.
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13. 2. Infer Have students explain this line from the article: “The types of food that Americans eat shock many people . . .”
Possible answer: People from other countries may not be used to the convenience foods and fast foods that Americans eat.
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14. 3. 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