Question

pierre is a student who does not understand the following sentence from cristina garcias dreaming in cuban.

lourdes buys a round box of sticky dates and considers the centuries of fratricide converging on this street corner in brooklyn. she ponders the transmigrations from the southern latitudes, the millions moving north.

which strategy would best help pierre understand the excerpt?

relating the sentence to personal experience
slowing down to break up the long sentence
looking up unfamiliar words in the sentence
reading the sentence out loud to himself

Explanation:

Analyze the student's difficulty

The student, Pierre, does not understand a specific excerpt from Cristina García's Dreaming in Cuban:
"Lourdes buys a round box of sticky dates and considers the centuries of fratricide converging on this street corner in Brooklyn. She ponders the transmigrations from the southern latitudes, the millions moving north."
To determine the best strategy, we must identify what makes this passage challenging. The sentence contains advanced vocabulary words such as "fratricide" (the killing of one's brother or sister, or conflict within a group) and "transmigrations" (movement from one place or state to another).

Evaluate the reading strategies

We evaluate each of the provided multiple-choice options to see which directly addresses this difficulty:

• relating the sentence to personal experience: This is a useful comprehension strategy, but it does not help decode highly specific, unfamiliar vocabulary words like "fratricide" or "transmigrations" if the reader has no prior knowledge of them.
• slowing down to break up the long sentence: While the sentences are somewhat long, the syntax is relatively straightforward (subject-verb-object). The primary barrier to comprehension is semantic (word meaning) rather than syntactic complexity.
• looking up unfamiliar words in the sentence: This strategy directly targets the core obstacle. By looking up "fratricide" and "transmigrations," Pierre can unlock the literal meaning of the passage, which describes a character reflecting on historical conflicts and mass migrations. This is a core Reading Comprehension Strategies application.
• reading the sentence out loud to himself: Reading aloud helps with fluency and pronunciation, but it does not automatically provide the definitions of difficult academic vocabulary.

Select the best strategy

Looking up unfamiliar words is the most direct and effective strategy to resolve Pierre's lack of understanding of this vocabulary-dense literary excerpt.

Answer:

• relating the sentence to personal experience
• slowing down to break up the long sentence
• looking up unfamiliar words in the sentence (Correct answer)
• reading the sentence out loud to himself