Read the excerpt from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.

During these years in Stamps, I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare. He was my first white love. Although I enjoyed and respected Kipling, Poe, Butler, Thackeray and Henley, I saved my young and loyal passion for Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B. Du Bois’ “Litany at Atlanta.” But it was Shakespeare who said, “When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes.” It was a state with which I felt myself most familiar.

How does the allusion to William Shakespeare affect the meaning of the text?

A. It shows that Angelou identifies with the feelings expressed in Shakespeare's poem.
B. It foreshadows Angelou's future career as a writer.

C. It reveals how much Angelou admires those who are not like herself.

D. It suggests Angelou's desire to leave her surroundings and go elsewhere.




Read this excerpt from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.

It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible spectacle.

What is the meaning of the figurative language in this passage?


A. Douglass was spared the worst kinds of physical torture that other enslaved people faced.

B. Douglass had to go through great pain during his escape from slavery.

C. Being enslaved was the worst experience imaginable.

D. There was a gate with blood on it at the plantation where Douglass lived.