Refer to Explorations in Literature for a complete version of this narrative. Read this excerpt from "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan.
Then she began to talk more loudly. “What he want, I come to New York tell him front of his boss, you cheating me?” And I was trying to calm her down, make her be quiet, while telling the stockbroker, “I can’t tolerate any more excuses. If I don’t receive the check immediately, I am going to have to speak to your manager when I’m in New York next week.” And sure enough, the following week there we were in front of this astonished stockbroker, and I was sitting there red-faced and quiet, and my mother, the real Mrs. Tan, was shouting at his boss in her impeccable broken English. How does this paragraph develop the idea that a person's ability to use language has nothing to do with his or her intelligence? It shows an instance in which someone with little mastery of a language nonetheless wisely and correctly recognizes that she is being taken advantage of.
It provides an example of a time when a person who struggled to use language effectively was outsmarted by someone who was more adept with words.
It depicts an incident in which having mastered a language actually proves to be a sign of foolishness or ignorance.
It describes an occurrence in which the author, who has mastered the language, is shown to be less intelligent than her mother, who hasn't.
The answer is:
It shows an instance in which someone with little mastery of a language nonetheless wisely and correctly recognizes that she is being taken advantage of.
In the excerpt from "Mother Tongue," the author Amy Tan describes the difficulties in the English language her Chinese mother has had to face in America. The passage mentions a specific anecdote in which her mother realizes her stockbroker has cheated on her because he had not sent her a check after two weeks. As a result, she makes Amy, who speaks perfect English, tell him on the phone that she would talk to his boss in New York, which they finally do.
