To Black Women / Gwendolyn Brooks

Test Practice

Identify Parallelism and Main Idea

With your partner, discuss how to answer these questions about parallelism and main idea.

1. Read the following lines from the poem:
“No hallelujahs, no hurrahs at all, no handshakes,
no neon red or blue, no smiling faces—”
Why does the author use parallelism in these lines?
a. to contrast the ideas in the list
b. to compare the value of the ways the women are not recognized
c. to emphasize that there was nothing
d. to define cold silence


What is the correct answer to the question above? How did the information you gathered during reading help you eliminate incorrect answers?

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