Idioms, Dialect, Slang: The Skinny


1. IDIOM = C. In Fences, Troy tries to justify his affair with Alberta with the following:

"I stood on first base for eighteen years..."


2. DIALECT = A. In "Two Kinds," Jing-mei's mother omits the articles "a", "an", and "the" in her speech.

"Of course you can be prodigy, too..."


3. SLANG = B. When Jing-mei mentions her mother's dead children, "I wish I were dead! Like them" the story reaches its climax. After Jing-mei springs this line on her mother, the transformation on her mother's face is profound. In describing the transformation, Jing-mei says:

"It was as if I had said the magic words. Alakazam!--and her face went blank..."



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