The Writing on the Wall

Which quotation from “The Writing on the Wall” best supports this statement: According to “The Writing on the Wall,” the men who wrote poems on the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station were saddened by memories of their lives in China.

• Imagine you were one of the most educated men in your village, the man on whom several families had pinned their hopes.

• “Thinking of affairs back home, / Unconscious tears wet my lapel.”

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CCSS.RL.8.4

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According to "The Writing on the Wall," which of the following was a reason for detaining an immigrant on Angel Island during the early 1900s?

• The immigrant was Chinese.

• The immigrant was a woman.

• The immigrant was a criminal.

• The immigrant was European.

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According to "The Writing on the Wall," who wrote the poems etched into the walls of Angel Island?

• educated men among the Chinese immigrants

• well-known poets among the Chinese immigrants

• bored Chinese Americans waiting to travel back to China

• angry Chinese politicians working for change at Angel Island

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CCSS.RL.8.4

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According to "The Writing on the Wall," which of the following factors made it difficult for people to find the poems on the walls of Angel Island? Choose three options.

• The barracks were deserted for years.

• The walls were painted over.

• The detention center was preserved.

• The buildings became derelict.

• The army burned down the buildings.

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According to "The Writing on the Wall," why did people decide to preserve the poems on the walls of the detention center?

• The poems are great examples of classical Chinese literature.

• The poems document the experiences of hundreds of immigrants.

• The poems record the history of the Angel Island detention center.

• The poems describe what it was like to be a Chinese American in the early 1900s.

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Which quotation from 'The Writing on the Wall' best supports the following opinion statement of the author:
"The poems are well written and use sophisticated techniques."

• Because so many of the poets actually spoke to each other in their "posts", we know that the poems matter to the people to whom they were addressed at the time.

• The poets held at the Angel Island Immigration Station were partaking of a centuries-old tradition, creating a camaraderie far beyond the confines of the walls they found themselves isolated inside.

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Read this quotation from “The Writing on the Wall.” Imagine you have traveled on a ship from China to America. Imagine it is sometime between 1910 and 1940, and you may or may not know the man who you will call your father when you arrive in the new country whose language you likely do not know. Imagine that when you arrive . . . you are taken to . . . Angel Island. Which of the following is a reasonable conclusion to draw from this quotation?

• Angel Island was used as an immigration station from at least 1910 until at least 1940.

• Some Chinese immigrants were quite fluent in English and adapted easily.

• Immigration from China to the United States was unrestricted after 1940.

• Immigration from China to the United States became severely restricted in 1910.

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According to “The Writing on the Wall,” how did the men who wrote poems on the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station feel about who and what they had left behind them in China?

• They were glad to have severed ties to their former lives.

• They were eager to return to China and to their previous situations.

• They were saddened by memories of their lives in China.

• They were cheered by knowing that people in China were counting on them.

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CCSS.RL.8.4

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One of the central ideas of "The Writing on the Wall" is that, for many years, Chinese immigrants were treated unfairly. How does the author develop that idea? Choose TWO options.

• by referring to the effects of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

• by describing how extensively the walls were covered by the poets’ work

• by including quotations from the poetry the Chinese immigrants wrote

• by describing how long some of the Chinese would-be immigrants were detained

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At the beginning of "The Writing on the Wall," the author quotes a poem that begins with these lines: "Over a hundred poems are on the walls. Looking at them, they are all pining at the delayed progress." Which statement best explains the connection of this quotation to the central idea of the blog post?

• The quotation proves that the poems were written by immigrants detained on the island

• The quotation illustrates the way the poems captured the experiences of the immigrants

• The quotation expresses the writer’s hope that more people will read the poems

• The quotation helps demonstrate how angry the immigrants on the island felt

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