Humanities ACT Reading Passage

One of the main arguments the author is trying to make in the passage is that: 

• until recently, foreign-born residents have not wanted to be involved in defining the American reality
• non-Western immigrants are changing the definition of what it means to be an American
• the United States immigration policy is inherently unfair
• America have changed the political affiliations of most non-Western immigrants.

Considering the information given in the first three paragraphs (lines 1-33), which of the following is the most accurate description of the author's girlhood and early adulthood?

• She grew up and was educated in Calcutta, moved to the United States, and lived in Manhattan
• She was born in Calcutta, was educated in England by Irish nuns, then moved to Manhattan.
• She was raised in Bangladesh, educated by Irish nuns in Calcutta, moved first to England and some time later arrived in the United States
• She was born in Faridpur, was educated in Calcutta, the moved to Manhattan

The author sees her "literacy agenda" (line 44) and her "mission" (line 58) to be: 

• raising the political consciousness of recent immigrants to the United States
• creating characters whose cultural heritage is not easily identifiable
• reinterpreting, through her stories, what it means to be an American
• finding an audience for her stories and novels

Which of the following statements from the passage is an acknowledgment by the author that she was changed by American?

• "The astrologer meant to offer me a melancholy future" (line 19)
• "All my girlhood, I straddled the seesaw of contradictions" (line 24-25)
• "I'm someone who watches tractor pulls on obscure cable channels" (lines 68-69)
• "My characters can, I hope, transcend the straitjacket of simple psychologizing" (lines 73-74)

The author refers to the village of Faridpur as a "phantom" (line 27) because: 

• it is a part of the Indian mythology her mother told her about
• she considers Manhattan, not Bangladesh, to be her home
• even though is was once part of India, it is not part of Bangladesh
• even though she considers it to be her ancestral home, she has never been there

When the author says that she is "trying to extend it" (line 30), she most likely means that she: 

• wants to see people from non-European ethnicities included in what is considered mainstream America.
• prefers to be part of both the Indian and the American cultures.
• is trying to find a way to make her home in the United States permanent.
• is working to change regulations so that many more Indian immigrants can live in the United States.

The author implies that she had to "sensitize editors" (line 48) because those editors: 

• dis not understand that many Asian Americans were already reading her work.
• gave superficial praise to her work, but would not publish her novels.
• were overtly discriminatory when it came to non-Western writers.
• tended to view the people she wrote about as one-dimensional.

According to the passage, by reading her stories, many of the author's readers leaned that: 

• good fiction writing obscures cultural difference among characters.
• they have much more in common with the author's characters than they ever realized.
• stories about immigrants to the United States generally have many more characters than do other types of stories.
• because of their immigrant status, people from non-Western counties have developed a stronger inner life than have most native-born Americans.

The first paragraph states that, at the time of the author's birth, India was: 

• engaged in a war with England
• not an independent country
• still part of Bangladesh
• governed by Irish

When the author says that the people she writes about "are culturally and politically several hundred year old" (lines 75-76), she most likely means that her characters: 

• have cultural and political viewpoints that are repressive and outdated
• have rejected Bengali, British, Irish, and American values
• have experienced an incredible amount of change in just one lifetime
• are really her mother's and grandmother's ancestors