3. Four Directions (pp. 182 – 205)

Questions and tasks:

1. How did the relations between the mother and the daughter develop since their conflict in Waverly’s childhood?

2. Why do you think the girl lost her gift of easy winning? Do you think her mother had something to do with it?

3. Why do you think the memories of the girl’s childhood included into the story?

4. Why couldn’t Waverly Jong tell her mother than she and Rick were getting married?

5. What plan did Waverly invent her mother accept Rich?

6. What was her mother’s reaction when Waverly finally told her that she and Rich were getting married?

7. How did her attitude to her mother change after that?

8. “Strategy” is the key word of the story. What “strategies” does the author speak about? How do this word and the last paragraph of the story explain the title?

Lesson VI

1. The Moon Lady (pp. 64 – 88)

Questions and tasks:

1. What can you say about Ying-Ying St. Clair’s childhood?

2. What is the Moon Festival?

3. Describe the day of the Moon Festival in 1918.

4. How and why did it happen that the little girl talked to the Moon Lady? What was the Moon Lady’s story? Describe the Moon Lady.

5. What was the girl’s wish?

6. Why does Ying-Ying St. Clair’s say that she and her daughter are lost?

2. Waiting between the Trees (pp. 274 – 287)

Questions and tasks:

1. Tell the story of Ying-ying‘s first marriage. Why wasn’t it happy? How did she change after that?

2. Speak about Ying-ying‘s life in America and her second marriage. In what way was it different from the first one?

3. Why did Ying-ying decide to confront her past? Why was it so important for her to tell Lena about her past?

4. In what way does Ying-ying symbolically resemble a tiger? What does a tiger represent in Chinese culture?

5. Explain the title of the story. Whom would you refer it to?