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ENG II Cultural Differences Blizzard Bag 2014 - 2015
from The Mistress of Spices
by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I am a Mistress of Spices.
I can work the others too. Mineral, metal, earth and sand and stone. The gems with their
cold clear light. The liquids that burn their hues into your eyes till you see nothing else. I
learned them all on the island.
But the spices are my love.
I know their origins, and what their colors signify, and their smells. I can call each by the truename it was given at the first, when earth split like skin and offered it up to the sky. Their heat
runs in my blood. Fromamchur to zafran, they bow to my command. At a whisper they yield up
to me their hidden properties, their magic powers.
Yes, they all hold magic, even the everyday American spices you toss unthinking into your
cooking pot.
You doubt? Ah. You have forgotten the old secrets your mother's mothers knew. Here is one
of them again: Vanilla beans soaked soft in goat's milk and rubbed on the wrist bone can guard
against the evil eye. And here another: A measure of pepper at the foot of the bed, shaped into
a crescent, cures you of nightmare.
But the spices of true power are from my birth land, land of ardent poetry, aquamarine
feathers. Sunset skies brilliant as blood. They are the ones I work with.
If you stand in the center of this room and turn slowly around, you will be looking at every
Indian spice that ever was—even the lost ones—gathered here upon the shelves of my store.
I think I do not exaggerate when I say there is no other place in the world quite like this.
1. The speaker in this passage has moved from India to America. This passage shows that she
A. is trying to maintain her cultural identity.
B. is facing a severe crisis of identity.
C. has adopted an American way of life.
D. doesn't remember her nation fondly.
2. Which of these best describes the significance of spices in the Indian culture?
A. Indian spices are exported for their magical properties.
B. People in India use spices for decorative purposes.
C. The spices are only cooked for cooking fancy meals.
D. The spices are considered important and powerful.
Carrying my Heritage
by A. Gautam
"The tortoise said that trouble is its own; that's why it carries trouble on its back."
An Igbo Proverb
Mama tells me stories from long ago
The words she carried in her mouth
From her mother who heard it
Perhaps, from the first mother ever
She doesn't wear a mask to dance
But her face bears traces of our past
I ask her for another story
About the thirteen months in our calendar
"Our time is our own, son," she says.
"Tomorrows are carried in yesterdays."
Her closed eyes take me to my land
I am an Igbo again,
Perfectly happy under the open sky
Content underneath my skin
Stories echoing in my blood
Speak of my great grandmother
Beyond the things I see and I don't
Bigger than the pigments and fragments
Of my immigrant identity,
I am whole again, home again.
3. What is one thing this poem teaches the reader about the Igbo people?
A. They do not question the state of things.
B. They have an appreciation for their history.
C. They have an avid interest in literature.
D. They prefer to move away from their homes.
4. Based on this poem, the Igbo people
A. have a rich oral tradition.
B. value honesty and hard work.
C. consider nature as divine.
D. do not migrate very often.
My Sioux Pride
From the Trail of Tears
To the tale of the Wounded Knee
I have lived the history of my elders
The age-old, silent fears
I look toward the sky
And the earth that is always mine
All is not lost, I remember
We can be us and shine
My braided, parted hair
And wooden flute will sing
Till the soil will grow new plants
Oh, let the music ring
5. What is one thing this poem teaches the reader about Native American people?
A. They have an avid interest in agriculture.
B. They aren't affected by their traumatic past.
C. They are apathetic to the prejudice.
D. They have tremendously suffered in history.
6. Based on this poem, Native Americans
A. lack an affinity for music.
B. have a close-knit family.
C. respect independence.
D. feel close to nature.
7.
Aurora and Tithonus
a Roman myth
Aurora, the goddess of the Dawn, like her sister the Moon, was at times inspired with the
love of mortals. Her greatest favorite was Tithonus, son of Laomedon, king of Troy. She stole
him away, and prevailed on Jupiter1 to grant him immortality; but forgetting to have youth
joined in the gift, after some time she began to discern, to her great mortification, that he was
growing old. When his hair was quite white she left his society; but he still had the range of her
palace, lived on ambrosial food, and was clad in celestial raiment. At length he lost the power of
using his limbs, and then she shut him up in his chamber, whence his feeble voice might at
times be heard. Finally she turned him into a grasshopper.
from Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable
1. the king of the gods
Based on the excerpt, the Roman gods
A. punished people for their lack of faith.
B. acted as they pleased.
C. wanted people to have immortality.
D. maintained orderly lives.
8.
Directions: Select the correct text in the passage.
In Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, the story begins in 1805 and chronicles the lives of five
aristocratic Russian families. Tolstoy shows how the families are affected by Russia's fragile
relationship with France. The excerpt below is from a letter that Princess Mary of Russia writes
to her friend Julie Karagina in Petersburg.
Which sentence best demonstrates how Russia's strained relationship with France is mirrored
in the exchange between Princess Mary and Julia Karagina?
from War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy
You ask whether we shall spend next winter in Moscow. In spite of my wish to see you, I do
not think so and do not want to do so. You will be surprised to hear that the reason for this is
Buonaparte!1 The case is this: my father's health is growing noticeably worse, he cannot stand
any contradiction and is becoming irritable. This irritability is, as you know, chiefly directed to
political questions. He cannot endure the notion that Buonaparte is negotiating on equal terms
with all the sovereigns of Europe and particularly with our own [Russia], the grandson of the
Great Catherine! As you know, I am quite indifferent to politics, but from my father's remarks
and his talks with Michael Ivanovich I know all that goes on in the world and especially about
the honors conferred on Buonaparte, who only at Bald Hills in the whole world, it seems, is not
accepted as a great man, still less as Emperor of France. And my father cannot stand this. It
seems to me that it is chiefly because of his political views that my father is reluctant to speak
of going to Moscow; for he foresees the encounters that would result from his way of
expressing his views regardless of anybody. All the benefit he might derive from a course of
treatment he would lose as a result of the disputes about Buonaparte which would be
inevitable. In any case it will be decided very shortly.
1. Napoleon Bonaparte
9.
A Finnish Winter
by T. Herlinger
The winter sun bounces off snowfields,
illuminating the cloak of white
that shapes our days.
We do not fight the snow
but befriend it, welcome it
After all, it can always be counted on
So we Finns glide across it on our manmade devices
All the while knowing it is master of us.
As if our land were a canvas,
nature wipes the canvas clean each winter,
scouring every corner in brilliant white,
until the spring thaw, drop by drop,
unveils another masterpiece.
Based on this poem, the Finnish people
A. battle the elements of nature.
B. feel oppressed by the long winters.
C. feel at home in a snowy climate.
D. wish they could live where it is warm.
10.
Directions: Select the correct text in the passage.
In East Indian culture, women with light-skinned complexions were often viewed as more
desirable and attractive than women with dark-skinned complexions.
Which of the following sentences best shows how the narrator struggles to accept her dark
skin?
from The Home and the World
by Rabindranath Tagore
MOTHER, today there comes back to mind the vermilion mark at the parting of your hair, the
sari which you used to wear, with its wide red border, and those wonderful eyes of yours, full of
depth and peace. They came at the start of my life's journey, like the first streak of dawn, giving
me golden provision to carry me on my way.
The sky which gives light is blue, and my mother's face was dark, but she had the radiance of
holiness, and her beauty would put to shame all the vanity of the beautiful.
Everyone says that I resemble my mother. In my childhood I used to resent this. It made me
angry with my mirror. I thought that it was God's unfairness which was wrapped round my
limbs—that my dark features were not my due, but had come to me by some
misunderstanding. All that remained for me to ask of my God in reparation was, that I might
grow up to be a model of what woman should be, as one reads it in some epic poem.
When the proposal came for my marriage, an astrologer was sent, who consulted my palm
and said, "This girl has good signs. She will become an ideal wife."
And all the women who heard it said: "No wonder, for she resembles her mother."
I was married into a Rajah's house. When I was a child, I was quite familiar with the
description of the Prince of the fairy story. But my husband's face was not of a kind that one's
imagination would place in fairyland. It was dark, even as mine was. The feeling of shrinking,
which I had about my own lack of physical beauty, was lifted a little; at the same time a touch
of regret was left lingering in my heart.