American Translation

Name: ______

American Translation

Rice Husband (Lena St. Clair)

Directions: Complete the chapter summary using words from the Word Bank.

Ying-ying St. Clair had the ability to see bad things that would affect her

______before they ever happened. Now she ______

that she never did anything to stop them. For example: she predicted that the baby

she carried would be born ______, and it was, or when her husband

died from ablockage in his ______, she knew this would happen

because a planthe had given her died from damage to its roots. Now, Ying-ying

was visitingher daughter Lena and Lena was ______about what her

motherwould find.

Lena and Harold’s marriage is in ______. Ying-ying

______this problem when Lena was only eight years old. She had

looked at Lena’s unfinished ______and said that her future husband

would have one pock mark for each grain of rice that she left in her bowl. He

would be a ______man.

Lena knew a pock-marked boy in the ______, Arnold, and

he was mean. Lena believed that she had the ______to make him die.

So, she began to leave more and more food ______at each meal. It

took five ______, but Arnold did die. Lena read that Arnold’s death

was the result of the ______but she knew the truth. Lena now

believes that you ______what you get and she got Harold.

Lena met Harold at ______. She was 28 and he was 34. They

decided early on that they would split all ______exactly in half

whether it was fair or not. Lena was in ______, so she didn’t

mind paying $500 rent when she moved in, or paying for half of the food bill.

She was Harold’s ______. But, somewhere, in the back of her brain,

she was ______with this system of equality.

Years ago Lena had encouraged Harold to start his own ______.

She worked with him as a project coordinator, gave him pep talks and gave him

the ______of how to make his restaurant designs stand out –

“theme eating”. His business ______and so did his paycheck.Yet

he and Lena continued to split everything in ______. They even

kept an itemized ______on the refrigerator to ensure that the split

was equal.

Ying-ying noticed the lists and ______Lena about them.

Ying-ying was surprised when she saw that ice cream was on the list knowing that

Lena ______eats it. Later she brought this up to Harold who passed

it off as Lena ______.

Later that night Lena gets angry and tells Harold that things need to

______. There is a ______from upstairs. Lena checks on

her mother and finds that a table that Harold made lays ______on

the floor. Ying-ying makes the statement – “Fallen down” (pg 165) then aks:

“… why don’t you ______it?”