NEXT UP! 3 192 behind a plastic partition, she returned with a dusty book, thick as War and Peace, said: This will tell us your race. Where was your father born? She asked, putting on her hornrimmed glasses. Persia, he said. Do you mean I-ran? I ran, you ran, we all ran, he smiled. Where’s your mother from? Voice cold as a gun. Russia, he replied. She put one finger on a word above a chart in the book, the other on a word at the bottom of the page, brought them together looking like a mad mathematician bent on solving the crimes of zero times zero divided by one. Her fingers stopped on a word. Declared: You are white. My brother stumbled back, a hand on his chest, eyes wide, mouth in an O as in O my God! All these years and I did not know. Then to the room, to the woman and the guards: I am white I can go anywhere Do anything I can go to Canada and pretend it’s Mexico At last, I am white and you have no reason to keep me here. UNDERSTANDING 44 Identity a) Find all the terms used in the story to describe the brother and his friend. What do these descriptive words tell us about each of them? Write a short explanation. b) Find the descriptions of the woman behind the desk. What do those descriptions encourage the reader to assume about her? Write a short explanation. 45 Work with similes a) War and Peace is a novel written by Russian author Leo Tolstoy, published in 1869. It is considered one of the longest novels ever written. What does the simile thick as War and Peace mean? Explain in a sentence or two. The country of Iran is commonly pronounced I-ran (eye-ran) in parts of the USA. a partition – skilrúm a chart – tafla to be bent on (doing something) – vera staðráðinn to declare – lýsa yfir “My Brother at the Canadian Border” is written by Sholeh Wolpé, an Iranian-American author. She writes poetry and short stories that have been classified as flash fiction. A piece of flash fiction is a story that is fictional and very short, ranging from six-word stories up to a thousand words. Hæfniviðmið • Lesið, skilið og unnið með fjölbreyttan orðaforða úr ýmsum textum. • Lesið sér til fróðleiks rauntexta af fjöl- breyttum miðlum, brugðist við efni þeirra eða unnið úr þeim á annan hátt.
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