Question

In Praise of Single Moms on Mother's Day
By Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Text retrieved from CommonLit. Licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0.
[1] As a kid, I dreamt of a magical land of two-parent families and two-story houses. A
land where everyone shopped without looking at price tags and ate at restaurants with
multiple forks and non-disposable napkins. I imagined that people who had two parents
and two floors had no problems and many Polo shirts. I knew almost no one who had
either.
[2] After I grew up and left Prince George’s County, Maryland, to go to college in the
Midwest, I rarely discussed where I came from. I quickly skipped over the conversation
when people asked, referring vaguely to “just outside of Washington” before moving on
to the next topic. Out of college I worked with people who had never known the inside of
a Marshall’s, clipped a coupon — let alone knew what a double coupon was — or
walked the front lawn of a yard sale looking for clothes or dishes.
Why did the narrator avoid discussing their hometown in college?
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© Houston ISD Curriculum 2024-2025 5
The narrator avoided discussing their hometown in college because she was embarrassed
of how she grew up, since the people in her college did not live in the same conditions as her.
Based on the information in the excerpt, which statement best captures the narrator’s
perspective on their past? Select TWO correct answers.
❏ They felt it was something to hide.
❏ They embraced it openly in adulthood.
❏ They felt conflicted about it.
❏ They saw it as a source of strength.
❏ They saw it as lacking ideal comforts.

Answer 1

The two statements that best capture the narrator’s perspective on their past are:

- They felt it was something to hide.
- They saw it as lacking ideal comforts.

These choices reflect the narrator's embarrassment about their upbringing and the contrast between their life and the lives of those around them in college.