California girl Mia wants to spend her vacation at the beach. But her parents have different plans. They send her to Vietnam with her grandmother, hoping Mia will learn to appreciate Vietnamese culture. But Mia doesn't view Vietnamese culture as her own. She doesn't even speak the language. This is the story I tell in my new novel, Listen, Slowly Can the trip attract Mia's interest in her roots? Will she refuse to accept her family’s history? Now I'1I tell you more about my new book.
So what inspired me to write the book? I wanted to look at cultural differences between teenagers in the United States and Vietnam. I also wanted to play with the idea of how we practice a language and how we communicate in spite of language barriers.
What is the main character Mia like? Well, she can be sarcastic (尖刻的), but she's basically a good child. She just wants to be a California beach girl. She has no interest in Vietnam. She spends a good two weeks pouting(噘嘴) when she gets to Vietnam. Then she comes to the conclusion that she may as well make the best of it.
You may wonder why I put Mia in a completely different environment. Well, if Mia is going to connect with her past, she will have to leave the world she knows. I think the easiest way to change a child's attitude is to take away everything she has already known. For example, Mia can’t be sarcastic in Vietnam because she doesn’t have the language to do it. I wanted her to listen instead of running tier mouth. When you re learning anew language, you are forced to listen because you can understand much more than you can speak.
Actually, the grandmother in the novel is very much like my own mother. I am the age of Mia's parents so I understand them. They speak both English, and Vietnamese. They have so much that they want to pass on to Mia but that she's not interested in.
As for now, I’m writing a novel about an American boy who wants to be a cowboy.
13. Why do Mia s parents want her to go to-Vietnam?
A .Because Mia's grandmother nee& her company.
B. Because they want Mia to learn about foreign cultures.
C. Because they want Mia-to develop liking for Vietnamese culture.
D. Because they don't want Mia to go to the beach alone.
14. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?,
A. What difficulties the author had in writing the book
B. Who inspired the author to write the book.
C. What the book mainly talks about.
D. How the author wrote the book:
15. How does Mia most probably feel after arriving in Vietnam?
A. Confused .B. Upset. C. Excited. D. Relaxed.