Going Home ACT Passage

The primary purpose of the first paragraph is to:

• A. describe the narrator's transition from her everyday, working life in the city to the world of her rural childhood.

• B. explain why the narrator becomes so frustrated when she arrives at her mother's house in the countryside.

• C. give the reader enough background about the setting of the story to explain the events of the later parts of the passage.

• D. foreshadow the narrator's feelings of abandonment as described in the last paragraphs of the passage.

The narrator considers the weather in Alabama during the summer time to be:

• F. humid and extremely hot.

• G. unbearably hot and miserable.

• H. cool and breezy.

• J. pleasantly familiar.

It can reasonably be inferred from the second paragraph (lines 15-28) that the narrator's feelings upon seeing her childhood home are feelings of:

• A. surprise at the dilapidated state of the building.

• B. frustration and anger toward her mother.

• C. joy tinged with fatigue caused by her travels.

• D. familiar recognition combined with nervousness.

The best description of the point of view from which this passage is told is that of a:

• F. daughter describing her thoughts during an event in her adult life.

• G. daughter reminiscing about her distant childhood in Alabama.

• H. mother remembering her daughter's visit to the family home.

• J. mother who longs to visit her adult daughter but cannot.

As it is used in line 28, the word braced most nearly means:

• A. fastened.

• B. straightened.

• C. prepared.

• D. supported.

As revealed in the passage, the mother is best described as:

• F. harsh and uncompromising.

• G. uneducated yet wise.

• H. altruistic and warm.

• J. distant but caring.

The central concern presented in the passage is:

• A. the anger that a daughter feels toward her distant mother and her struggles to overcome this anger.

• B. the conflicting emotions experienced by the narrator upon her homecoming from her life in the city to the rural childhood of her youth.

• C. the narrator's realization that her mother has aged terribly during the four years the narrator spent in college.

• D. an older woman's cautious but willful acceptance of her daughter's foreign lifestyle as the older woman is forced to stay in her hometown.

The relationship between the narrator and her mother, as described in the last paragraph (lines 60-71) of the passage, could best be described as:

• F. extremely close, built on frank emotional openness and mutual respect of one another's independent decisions.

• G. based on unspoken thoughts, leading to occasional misunderstandings, but ultimately supportive and caring.

• H. antagonistic, largely due to the mother's unwillingness to support her daughter's independent decision to move away.

• J. a very distant relationship, largely nonexistent outside of rare visits on the part of the daughter.

The emotional states of the characters are primarily conveyed by the author's use of:

• A. metaphorical descriptions of the setting.

• B. subtle but emotionally charged dialogue.

• C. visual descriptions and narrative reflections.

• D. detailed psychological portraits by an objective narrator.

As revealed in the final paragraph, upon seeing her mother at the sink, the narrator, for the first time, realizes which of the following?

• F. She wants desperately for her mother to be more expressive of her emotions.

• G. Her mother has aged to such an extent that the daughter has trouble recognizing her and the house in which she lives.

• H. It is difficult to leave someone and not be able to visit them every year during the holidays.

• J. Her mother has been supportive of the narrator's decision to leave but has not expressed it in a way the narrator expects.