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?”