The Writing on the Wall

As used in the passage, the word commiserate most nearly means:

• reprimand

• pacify

• reflect

• sympathize

In the context of the passage, which of the following words most closely matches the tone conveyed by the phrase “you are a detainee, not a vacationer”?

• placated

• alienated

• invigorated

• deferential

Which of the following best captures the primary function of the historical allusions to Su Wu and Wengong in the poem?

• To emphasize the poet’s belief that hardship inevitably leads to personal fame

• To draw a moral distinction between political loyalty and personal despair

• To suggest that exile was a common experience for men of high status

• To elevate the poet’s suffering by comparing it to revered figures from Chinese history

Based on the passage, which of the following best characterizes the author’s purpose in contrasting immigrants with "papers in order" and those detained on Angel Island?

• To emphasize the stark difference between hope and hardship in the immigrant experience

• To demonstrate the unfairness of the immigration process under the Chinese Exclusion Act

• To argue that most immigrants willingly chose detention as a temporary inconvenience rather than deportation

• To highlight the administrative inefficiency of early 20th-century U.S. immigration policy

In the context of the passage, the phrase "These were not just idle scribbles" serves primarily to:

• imply that most poems did not lacked formal structure

• emphasize the casual nature of the poems, which gained significance only later

• challenge the assumption that detainees were uneducated and artistically uninspired

• introduce the idea that the poems were written in haste and without reflection

The phrase “stand the test of time” in the passage most likely implies that the poems:

• possess a timeless literary and emotional quality that resonates across generations

• were reinterpreted by later poets who wrote about immigration experiences

• were preserved because of the fame of the individual poets who wrote them

• were eventually translated and included in official immigration records

Based on the passage, which of the following best explains how poetry functioned for detainees at Angel Island?

• As a record of legal protest intended to influence immigration policy

• As a means of entertainment to distract from the monotony of daily life in detention

• As an emotionally grounded cultural practice that linked personal suffering to a shared literary past

• As a coded form of communication meant to evade surveillance by immigration officials

Which of the following best describes the central irony in the final lines of the paragraph 11?

• The imagery in the poem contradicts the real conditions of Angel Island, which were far worse.

• The poet, once silenced and isolated, is now remembered and heard by a diverse audience across time and culture.

• The poet’s emotional suffering is diminished by the academic interpretation of his work.

• The poet’s intent was purely private, yet his words have been used for public and political commentary.

In the context of the passage, the phrase "the barracks were deserted for years" and the word "derelict" most clearly contribute to the author's portrayal of the island as:

• a condemned site officially closed to all visitors and researchers

• a transformed military installation actively used throughout the mid-20th century

• a neglected space facing possible destruction but also holding latent cultural significance

• a thriving cultural center preserved after its tragic history

Which of the following best describes the role of the Lucille Clifton poem in the passage?

• To demonstrate that all writing is intended to be universally understood

• To suggest that new meanings often arise from artistic experimentation

• To illustrate the difficulty of understanding true significance of the referenced poems

• To argue that the Angel Island poems were deliberately coded to evade detection