Read the excerpt from "Speaking Arabic." At a neighborhood fair in Texas, somewhere between the German Oom-pah Sausage Stand and
the Mexican Gorditas booth, I overheard a young man say to his friend, "I wish I had a heritage. Sometimes I feel—so lonely for one." And the tall American trees were dangling their thick branches right down over his head. Which best explains how Nye's text structure helps establish her voice in the excerpt? Nye relates a story about something she heard to emphasize the point she wants to make about heritage. Nye compares her experience to a stranger's experience to express her ideas about the importance of heritage. Nye lists food booths at a neighborhood fair in Texas to make a statement about diverse foods in America. Nye uses a cause-and-effect format to show how heritage can limit a person's cultural diversity.
The option which best explains how Nye's text structure helps establish her voice in the excerpt is:
A. Nye relates a story about something she heard to emphasize the point she wants to make about heritage.
Explanation:
In "Speaking Arabic," Naomi Shihab Nye discusses heritage. In the particular excerpt we are analyzing here, she relates something she heard a man say once about wanting to have a heritage. Her purpose in relating his words is to address people's need to have a fixed, specific identity. Being of mixed ethnicities, Nye wants to show that diversity is also an identity, a heritage. That is why she also mentions the different food stores and the American trees. The man is surrounded by heritage but is blinded to it by his need to define and specify it.
