Question

read the excerpt from \daughter of invention\: yoyo didnt need much encouragement. she put her nose to the fire, as her mother would have said, and read from start to finish without looking up. when she concluded, she was a little embarrassed at the pride she took in her own words. she pretended to quibble with a phrase or two, then looked questioningly to her mother. lauras face was radiant. yoyo turned to share her pride with her father. what does the underlined idiom tell the reader about yoyo? she was as cold as she wrote her speech, so she sat by the fire. she worked hard to finish her speech for the assembly. she was proud of the speech once she finished it. she finished the speech in a very short amount of time.

Explanation:

The idiom "put her nose to the grindstone" means to work hard and diligently at a task. In the context, Yoyo worked hard to finish her speech (from start to finish without looking up), so the idiom tells us she worked hard to finish her speech for the assembly. Let's analyze the other options:

• Option 1: The idiom has nothing to do with being cold or the mother's fire - eliminating.
• Option 3: The idiom is about the process of working, not the pride after finishing - eliminating.
• Option 4: The idiom doesn't imply the time taken, just the hard work - eliminating.

Answer:

B. She worked hard to finish her speech for the assembly.