Reread lines 173-174. With a small group, discuss your interpretation of the story's ending. What is the Emperor thinking about? Support your ideas with explicit textual evidence.

what are your options ?

i would say years or cherry blossoms

c. barbarians with unexpected intelligence  

the correct answer is d. a discussion of specific uses of alliteration

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when you are critiquing or evaluating a poem, you will mostly pay attention to the theme, as well as figures of speech and rhythm. alliteration is a figure of speech where consonants are repeated in neighboring words - and it is important for analysis of sound and rhythm, which is why it might appear in the evaluation of that poem.

"why don't you like me the way i am? " i cried. "i'm not a genius! i can't play the piano, and even if i could, i wouldn't go on tv if you paid me a million dollars! "

explanation:

the conflict between jing-mei and her mother is over jing-mei's piano lessons since her mother wants her to become a prodigy but she does not want to play it any more.