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English Assignment 3

Student’s Name

Institution

Course Lecturer

Date
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Question 1

(a) Purpose of the writer

The writer intended to express a definite feeling about longing to be in the respective homeland.

Levels of discomfort and dissatisfaction are evident in the present environment where the author

states how she was woken out of a borrowed bed. For instance, the line "Daylight was equally

insistent but much bolder and more thoughtless. It dazzled, muddling the sight. It forced through

my closed eyelids, bringing me up and out of a borrowed bed and into brand new streets "has

shown how sunshine penetrated her closed eyes to end the slumber and drive her into the towns

that have not been familiar. The second illustration is the appearance of the breezes that have

been described as soothing that portray the freedom at home. However, the vanishing of the

soothing winds into the darkened atmosphere symbolizes the possibility of lack of happiness and

contentment while in the foreign land. The stanza displaying the two segments is “The breezes of

the West African night were intimate and shy, licking the hair, sweeping through cotton dresses

with unseemly intimacy, and then disappearing into the utter blackness”.

(b) Possible meaning of the sentence

Intimacy and shyness of the breezes symbolize the liberal and comfort surrounding the

author’s motherland. In line 1 of stanza 1, a livid description of the affectionate air given to hair

and clothes shows the pleasant and motherly care. The writer is staying in a foreign West African

country in which she could not freely enjoy the privileges (stanza 3 line 2). These cool and timid

winds were a symbol of the power possessed by the author to make necessary changes to the

nature of events.
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(c) Possible meanings of the ambiguous statement

The third sentence in stanza 3 of the extract has contradicted the expectations of several readers

since the author and her son claim to be miraculously accepted in West Africa, yet they are

black Americans. Certainly, their skin color is not a factor to consider and discriminate them.

the fact remains the two were African citizens who once lived in Egypt for two years (stanza 2

line1). Likewise, Maya planned to enroll her son in Ghana and work in Liberia which is both

African nations (stanza 2 line 2). The first possible racial aspect could be the two were a

crossbreed from an African and American as seen from the line “We were Black Americans in

West Africa” Moreover, this could suggest that in the past years, the two characters lived in

conditions that led to a distinction in their skin color as quoted in lines 1 & 2 of the third stanza.

The two factors define probable meanings of the situation in which they were accepted

regardless of the difference in the color of the skin.

(d) Effect of the choice of verbs on meaning in the first paragraph

Firstly, the verb licking has been used to show nice treatment accorded to hair (stanza 1

line 1). The hair must be of great value and importance hence being accorded adorable handling.

Secondly, sweeping is an act that was done to the dresses made of cotton. The pieces of cloth

were being cleaned by the breezes and this also shows their importance (stanza 1 line 1). Thirdly,

the dazzling of daylight in the third line of stanza 1, has been used to portray the favorable

brightness that was experienced. Fourthly, the verb disappearing indicates temporal

unavailability of desired freedom (stanza 1 line 2).

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Muddling, which is the fifth verb illustrates how the breezes created disorganization of

the author's visualization (stanza 1 line 3). Lastly, the word bringing as used in the fourth line of

the first stanza expresses action in which the writer was woken up and taken to the unfamiliar

streets.

Question 2

The excerpt below presents an analysis of the conversation of a cartoon’s pictorial scene

that represents an examination administered orally to an individual.

First, the learner has responded with the wrong tone. In this article, how the reply is made

has been implied by the question tag after the answer. The teacher expected the scholar to state

examples of pronouns and not to speak back by asking "who" in a manner that specified doubt

since the respondent was not sure to whom the question was directed. It is worth noting that the

question tag present at the end of the word “me “shows the worry or unpreparedness of the

learner. The examiner may ask himself many irrelevant questions that would further result in

disciplinary actions or disqualification. Secondly, the selection made on the words to use was not

appropriate. Being a classroom context, the parties could have used a good number of

vocabularies that would not only alert the learner but would also shape out an examination mood.

The two words “who and me” do not match. They do not indicate any relation to the required

response.

Additionally, some punctuation marks have been omitted. The teacher's question, which

is a statement, is missing a full stop. The answer from the undergraduate individual has been

wrongly punctuated with the full stop and question tag at incorrect points. Words in this

examination could have been written in lowercase with a capitalization of the first letters of

"Name" and "Who".

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There is no relation between the intended sense of the examination and the interpreted

feedback. The learner did not comprehend the quiz and this resulted in erroneous reactions.

Fourthly, communication breakdown has been depicted in the incidence (Zindela, et al., 2012).

As a result, a communication barrier was created. The teacher may be forced to divert from the

main subject and find out why the student answered incorrectly. Moreover, the instructor may

alternatively terminate the exam and send the student away. Since expected pronouns were not

named by the scholar, this led to time wastage and inconvenience in the examination schedule

because the exercise ought to be postponed till a later date.

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References
Zindela, N., Horne, F., & Ndlamangandla, C. (2012). Study Guide for ENG1502. The University
of South Africa.
Maya, A. (2011). All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes. Paw Prints.