Part A Which sentence best expresses one central idea of "The Writing on the Wall"? A. People did not immediately see the value in the poems from Angel Island.

B. People should organize efforts to preserve the poems from Angel Island.

C. The immigrants who wrote poetry addressed one another in their poems.

D. Poetry is a mighty and meaningful way to connect people across time.

Part B Which quotation from "The Writing on the Wall" best supports the answer to Part A?

A. Imagine you saw not just one poem written on or etched into the walls, but hundreds. Imagine nearly every inch of available wall space was taken up by a poem, and there was only a little space left.

B. Because so many of the poets actually spoke to each other in their "posts," we know that the poems mattered to the people to whom they were addressed at the time.

C. Or, I should say in the case of the detention center that it was years before anyone who was not being directly addressed recognized the language and understood why it mattered.

D. Scholars are researching the poems, and people and poets like me, who need to believe in the power of poetry to speak beyond the here and now, can stand in front of those walls and understand the power of poetry: to calm, to communicate, to commiserate, and to conserve.