"Don't Peak in High School" Mindy Kaling

"No one offered me pot. It wasn’t until I was sixteen that I even knew marijuana and pot were the same thing. I didn’t even learn this from a cool friend; I gleaned it from a syndicated episode of 21 Jump Street."

What does GLEANED mean?

• to be told outright

• to extract information from various sources

• to look up in a dictionary

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After reading the speech, how would we NOT describe our speaker?

• nostalgically pining for the past

• self-confident and content

• determined and hardworking

• disappointed in the perceived status quo

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Why does Kaling offer an idea for a song called "Nguyen and Ari" as an alternative to Mellencamp's "Jack and Diane"?

• to emphasize the contrast between what is perceived as the ideal, American high school experience, and what actually should be.

• to remind the reader that she felt left out and bitter during high school

• to criticize the nerds for not embracing the cultural priorities of America's youth

• to brag about how academically successful she was in high school

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Kaling ends her speech with the following:

The chorus of “Jack and Diane” is: Oh yeah, life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone.

Are you kidding me? The thrill of living was high school? Come on, Mr. Cougar Mellencamp. Get a life."

What is the purpose of the rhetorical question?

• to challenge Mr. Mellencamp to provide an answer and change his song

• to remind the audience that she's joking

• to emphasize how pathetic it is to tell people that high school is the best there is in life

• To convince the audience to try hard in high school

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What is the author's purpose in this speech?

• to remind her audience that high school is one of the most important experiences of their lives and to make the most of it

• to persuade her audience to forget high school since it is clearly a waste of time

• to persuade her audience to see high school as a small part of a much bigger story

• to criticize "the cool" kids an make them feel bad for who they were in high school

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How does Kaling use ethos to establish credibility with her audience?

• She lists her accomplishments to demonstrate that she is an expert.

• She uses emotion to make the audience feel passionate about the topic.

• She uses humor and common experiences to connect with them as a like-minded person

• She uses statistics and evidence to prove her point.

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Which of the following lines BEST demonstrates the author's use of pathos in the text?

• Teenage girls, please don’t worry about being super popular in high school, or being the best actress in high school, or the best athlete. Not only do people not care about any of that the second you graduate, but when you get older, if you reference your successes in high school too much, it actually makes you look kind of pitiful.

• Why are these kids not home doing their homework? Why aren’t they setting the table for dinner or helping out around the house? Who allows their kids to hang out in parking lots? Isn’t that loitering?

• If Luke Perry had gone to my high school, everybody would have thought, “What’s the deal with this brooding greaser? Is he a narc?” But that’s who Hollywood put forth as “just a dude at your high school.”

• In the genre of “making you feel like you’re not having an awesome American high school experience,” the worst offender is actually a song: John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Jack and Diane.”

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The theme of the speech is:

Your high school experience does not define who you will become.

Which quote best supports that theme?

• In high school, I had fun in my academic clubs, watching movies with my girlfriends, learning Latin, having long, protracted, unrequited crushes on older guys who didn’t know me, and yes, hanging out with my family.

• What I’ve noticed is that almost no one who was a big star in high school is also big star later in life. For us overlooked kids, it’s so wonderfully fair.

• I just want ambitious teenagers to know it is totally fine to be quiet, observant kids.

• You pretty much have only eighteen years to spend with them full time, and that’s it. So, yeah, it all added up to a happy, memorable time. Even though I was never a star.

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What is the main idea of the first paragraph of the speech?

• There are several ways to achieve the same goal.

• Planning for the future after high school is important.

• Some dreams are unrealistic and unachievable.

• Parents need to be supportive of your dreams for you to be successful.

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Which two literary devices does the author use in the following passage?

Not only do people not care about any of that the second you graduate, but when you get older, if you reference your successes in high school too much, it actually makes you look kind of pitiful, like some babbling old Tennessee Williams character with nothing else going on in her current life.

• metaphor

• simile

• personification

• allusion

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