Read the excerpt from "a quilt of a country."

once these disparate parts were held together by a common enemy, by the fault lines of world wars and the electrified fence of communism. with the end of the cold war there was the creeping concern that without a focus for hatred and distrust, a sense of national identity would evaporate, that the left side of the hyphen—african-american, mexican-american, irish-american—would overwhelm the right.

what does the use of the term fault lines reveal about how the author views world wars?

a) she believes that world wars are necessary.
b) she believes that world wars divide americans.
c) she believes that world wars are a small concern.
d) she believes that world wars are harmful to people.

Read the paragraph from a student's literary essay comparing two different works (1) sandra cisneros's "mericans" is about a young american girl of mexican descent who is struggling to find her own cultural identity (2) cisneros illustrates this through a number of images and ideas. (3) for example, the speaker, micaela, calls her grandmother "awful," and seems to resent the woman's strict views and religious ideals. (4) the speaker also mentions how she and her brother emulate characters from popular american television programs when they play make-believe. (5) lastly, she describes physically standing outside her family's church, an act that symbolizes the fact that she feels like an outsider to mexican culture. (6) although micaela is of mexican descent, she seems to feel a stronger connection to the united states. this paragraph supports the idea that micaela wishes her heritage was different because she has difficulty relating to her grandmother. wants to find her own unique identity that is separate from her brother and her grandmother will never accept her mexican roots because of her feelings toward her grandmother identifies with her mexican heritage in a different way than her grandmother mark this and return save and exit next submit