Multiple Choice Questions: "A Smile to Remember"

we had goldfish and they circled around and around
covering the picture window and
my mother, always smiling, wanting us all
to be happy, told me, 'be happy Henry!'
and she was right: it's better to be happy if you
can
but my father continued to beat her and me several times a week while
raging inside his 6-foot-two frame because he couldn't
understand what was attacking him from within.
my mother, poor fish,
wanting to be happy, beaten two or three times a
week, telling me to be happy: 'Henry, smile!
why don't you ever smile?'

and then she would smile, to show me how, and it was the
saddest smile I ever saw

one day the goldfish died, all five of them,
they floated on the water, on their sides, their
eyes still open,
and when my father got home he threw them to the cat
there on the kitchen floor and we watched as my mother
smiled
my mother, poor fish,
wanting to be happy, beaten two or three times a
week, telling me to be happy: 'Henry, smile!
why don't you ever smile?'
and then she would smile, to show me how, and it was the
saddest smile I ever saw

one day the goldfish died, all five of them,
they floated on the water, on their sides, their
eyes still open,
and when my father got home he threw them to the cat
there on the kitchen floor and we watched as my mother
smiled
and then she would smile, to show me how, and it was the
saddest smile I ever saw
one day the goldfish died, all five of them,
they floated on the water, on their sides, their
eyes still open,
and when my father got home he threw them to the cat
there on the kitchen floor and we watched as my mother
smiled
one day the goldfish died, all five of them,
they floated on the water, on their sides, their
eyes still open,
and when my father got home he threw them to the cat
there on the kitchen floor and we watched as my mother
smiled
in the bowl on the table near the heavy drapes

1.)    Line 1 serves to do all of the following except . . .

A.    Set up the action by paralleling the mother to the fish

B.     Show how the narrator feels

C.     Establish a feeling of monotony

D.    Show the fish are trapped

E.     Introduce the extended symbol

2.)    In the poem the reader can infer that the mother is . . .

A.    Pleased with her life

B.     Content with being beaten

C.    Masking her unhappiness by focusing on her child

D.    Unhappy and will forever be unhappy

E.     An independent woman

3.)    The word “can” in line 7 exists on its own line because . . .

A.    The author ran out of room on the last line

B.     It follows the poem’s rhythm

C.     It shows that they were already able to be happy

D.    It emphasizes the fact that happiness is not automatic

E.     It allows readers to concentrate on the above line

4.)    The repetition of “smile” throughout the poem serves to . . .

A.    Show how truly happy the mother and the boy are

B.     Illustrate how important the author believes it is to smile

C.    Define smiling as a symbol and allow readers to see through the mother’s front

D.    show that the smile is a parallel to attitude of the fish

E.     Show that the mother is able to smile even though she is unhappy

5.)    From the poem we can infer the father is . . .

A.)  Internally weak despite his large frame

B.)  Clear headed making him in charge of the household

C.)  A person who receives respect

D.)  Working on bettering himself for his family

E.)   Not the cause of the mother and narrator’s unhappiness