Question by : Need help in AP English Language and Composition?
This is a passage that my teacher told me that is going to come in my school exam . It came before in the actual AP in 1991 . But unfortunately I dont have the answers for the questions and so I am not sure of my answers . So I wish if someone who is really good in english would help answer the questions in the end . OR if someone has the answers somewhere for this passage , i would appreciate it if you gave me the link to the answers . This passage came in the 1991 AP English Language and Composition Exam .

I was glad when somebody told me ” you may go and collect Negroo folk-lore.”
In a way it would not be a new experience for me. When pitched headforemost into the world I landed in a crib of negroism. From the earliest rocking of my cradle, I had known about the capers Brer Rabbit is apt to cut and what the Squinch Owl says from the house top. But it was fitting me like a tight chemise. I couldn’t see it for wearing it. It was only when I was off in college, away from my native surroundings, that I could see myself like somebody else and stand off and look at my garment. Then I had to have the spy-glass of Anthropology to look through at that.
Dr. Boas asked me where I wanted to work and I said ” Florida ” and gave , as my big reason, that ” Florida is a place that draws people – white people from all over the world, and Negroos from every southern state surely and some from the North and West.” So I knew that it was possible for me to get cross section of the Negroo South in the one state. And then I realized that I was new myself, so it looked sensible for me to choose familiar ground.
First place I aimed to stop to collect material was Eatonville, Florida.
And now, I’m going to tell you why I decided to go to my native village first. I didn’t go back there so that the home folks could make admiration over me because I had been up North to college and come back with a diploma and a Chevrolet. I knew they were not going to pay either of these items too much mind. I was just Lucy Hurston’s daughter, Zora and even if I had – to use one of our down-home expressions – had a Kaiser baby , and that’s something that hasn’t been done in this country yet, I’d still be just Zora to the neighbors. If I had exalted myself to impress the town, somebody would have sent me word in a match-box that I had been up North there and had rubbed the hair off of my head against some college wall, and then come back there with a lot of form and fashion and outside show to the world. But they’d stand flat-footed and tell me that they didn’t have me, neither my sham-polish, to study ’bout. And that would have been that.
I hurried back to Eatonville because I knew that the town was full of material and that I could get it without hurt , harm , or danger. As early as I could remember it was the habit of men folks particularly to gather on the store porch of evenings and swap stories. Even the women folks would stop and break a breath with them at times. As a child when I was sent down to Joe Clarke’s store, I’d drag out my leaving as long as possible in order to hear more.
Folk-lore is not as easy to collect as it sounds. The best source is where there are the least outside influences and these people, being usually under-privileged, are the shyest. They are most reluctant at times to reveal that which the soul lives by.

1- In the context of the passage as a whole, the fifth paragraph ( And now … would have been that ) functions as which of the following ?

I. An introduction to the values that predominated in Eatonville.
II. An expansion of biographical information about the speaker.
III. An overview of the speaker’s planned research.

(A) I
(B) III
(C) I and II
(D) II and III
( E) I, II and III

2- In context, the phrase ” that which the soul lives by” ( last line ) is probably intended to

(A) suggest that the most powerful folktales are never revealed
(B) give value to the folklore tradition
(C) arouse skepticism about the speaker’s objectivity
(D) stimulate out curiosity about the future of the characters
(E) characterize folklore as old-fashioned

3- Which of the following best describes the speaker’s attitude in the passage toward the townspeople of Eatonville ?

(A) she feels inadequate in their presence
(B) she resents the fact that they do not admire her
(C) she appreciates their approach to life
(D) she believes they deserve better rewards in their lives
(E) she understands them but does not take them seriously

4- The speaker apparently assumes that the audience she addresses is

(A) well informed about folklore
(B) fascinated by Southern traditions
(C) not interested in factual information
(D) obsessed with scientific methodology
(E) not composed only of professional anthropologists

Best answer:

Answer by worldisone
1E 2b 3 c 4b

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