Reading Comprehension

PT134 · S4 · P2 · Q10 Mexican American Proverb Use

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Mexican Americans share with speakers of Spanish throughout the world a rich and varied repertoire of proverbs as well as a vital tradition of proverb use.

Topic

Mexican American proverbs: their origins, uses, and cultural significance

Framework

Highlight Noteworthy

Main Point

Mexican Americans not only have a rich tradition of proverbs inherited from broader Spanish and European sources, but proverb use plays a particularly important role in teaching youth and fostering a sense of ethnic identity in Mexican American communities. (Most Valuable Sentence: The final sentence of paragraph 3 encapsulates the main takeaway: )

P1: Introduction to Mexican American Proverbs

Mexican Americans, like Spanish speakers worldwide, have a diverse and abundant collection of proverbs, most of which were passed down from Spain or the broader European tradition. These proverbs carry wisdom and can be understood outside specific conversations.

P2: Functions and Didactic Role of Proverbs

Using a proverb is personal and adapts to different situations, BUT community and tradition shape how proverbs are used. In Mexican American communities in particular, proverbs are often used by parents to teach young people—especially about behavior and peer relationships, sometimes more so than in English-speaking traditions. The example proverb about friends highlights concern over outside influences and the desire to maintain traditional norms.

P3: Proverbs as a Foundation for Ethnic Identity

Proverbs aren’t just for giving advice—they also help Mexican Americans feel connected to their ethnic heritage, teaching not only values but also language and cultural traditions. Even the proverbs that aren’t directly educational still help pass on Mexican culture and reinforce a sense of belonging.

10.

The passage most strongly suggests which one of the following about the use of proverbs?

  1. Proverb use is seldom intended

    Too Strong: seldom intended

    Can we support the idea that "most uses of proverbs are not intended to reinforce community norms"? No, we have no support for that. We might even have counter support since we were told that proverb use is shaped by the larger community.

    1% picked this

  2. Correct

    The way in which a

    Why this is right

    We would prioritize researching support for an answer like this, since it's so weakly worded. It's just saying that proverb use depends at least in part on something. We can support this with that region of text we found at the beginning of the 2nd paragraph: Since we know that the meaning of each use of a proverb depends in part on the social context in which the use occurs (and that proverb use is shaped by the larger community with which the individual interacts), we know that proverb use depends at least in part on the community in which it's used.

    Skill tested: Inference · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    82% picked this

  3. The most frequent use of

    Too Strong: the most frequent

    The closest text support we have here is that "Adolescents of Mexican descent report the frequent use of proverbs by their parents as a teaching tool, ranging from the inculcation of table manners to the regulation of peer-group relationships". We would have no way, from that sentence, of knowing whether table manners was a more frequent use of proverb use than regulating peer-group relationships, or vice versa. And we'd have no way of saying either of those uses or proverbs is more common than any other use of proverbs".

    6% picked this

  4. Proverbs are often used to

    Out of Scope: teach languages

    We know that proverbs are often used to teach young people, but we've only heard that it's used to teach things like table manners or responsible behavior with friends. We can't find support that it's used to teach a language.

    2% picked this

  5. When a proverb is used

    Too Strong: usually multi-purpose

    As with (C), our closest support is this sentence in the 2nd paragraph: "Adolescents of Mexican descent report the frequent use of proverbs by their parents as a teaching tool, ranging from the inculcation of table manners to the regulation of peer-group relationships". That sentence indicates more than one purpose of using proverbs as a teaching tool, but it never says or implies that proverbs are intended to serve more than one purpose at the same time. It sounds more like "sometimes a proverb is used as an education tool to instill good table manners / other times it's used as a tool to teach children to hang out with good people".

    9% picked this

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