Question

read the excerpt from \mother tongue.\

those tests were constructed around items like fill - in - the - blank sentence completion, such as \even though tom was __, mary thought he was __.\ and the correct answer always seemed to be the most bland combinations of thoughts, for example, \even though tom was foolish, mary thought he was ridiculous.\ well, according to my mother, there were very few limitations as to what tom could have been and what mary might have thought of him. so i never did well on tests like that.

how does tan build a central idea of her story in the excerpt?

tan discusses the types of questions on achievement tests to support the idea that the tests limit students’ ability to write well.

tan explains a question on a language achievement test to support the idea that the tests should include more interesting content.

tan gives an example of her experience with achievement tests to support the idea that they are not always accurate measures of language ability.

tan considers how her mother might answer a question on a test to support the idea that nonstandard english limits a persons ability to communicate.

Explanation:

1. Analyze Option 1: The excerpt focuses on test accuracy for language ability, not writing ability limitation. Eliminate.
2. Analyze Option 2: The excerpt's purpose is not to suggest test content changes, but to show test inaccuracy. Eliminate.
3. Analyze Option 3: Tan uses her test experience (example of a test question and her poor performance) to show that such tests don't accurately measure language ability (since her mother's more flexible thinking about the question shows the test's rigidity). This matches.
4. Analyze Option 4: The excerpt doesn't discuss nonstandard English limiting communication, but test accuracy. Eliminate.

Answer:

C. Tan gives an example of her experience with achievement tests to support the idea that they are not always accurate measures of language ability.