Read the excerpt from black boy.
my mother fell ill and the problem of food became an acute, daily agony. hunger was with us always. sometimes the neighbors would feed us or a dollar bill would come in the mail from my grandmother. it was winter and i would buy a dime’s worth of coal each morning from the corner coalyard and lug it home in paper bags. for a time i remained out of school to wait upon my mother, then granny came to visit us and i returned to school.
through his personal experience, which social issue is wright emphasizing?
the effects of long distances on families
the benefits of certain types of energy
the benefits of education for children
the effects of poverty on families

Read this excerpt from "the all-american slurp." i pulled the strings out of my stalk. z-z-zip, z-z-zip. my brother followed suit. z-z-zip, z-z-zip. to my left, my parents were taking care of their own stalks. z-z-zip, z-z-zip, z-z-zip. suddenly i realized that there was dead silence except for our zipping. looking up, i saw that the eyes of everyone in the room were on our family. mr. and mrs. gleason, their daughter meg, who was my friend, and their neighbors the badels—they were all staring at us as we busily pulled the strings of our celery. what story element does the author develop in this excerpt? a) lot details about the party b) characterization of the lins c) characterization of the gleasons d) setting details about the gleasons’ house