1. highlight interesting diction. 2. Why did you highlight each word? What connotations do the words have?

3. Is there a pattern in the word choice?

4. How is the meaning affected by the words?

On Christmas Eve I saw that my mother had outdone herself in creating a strange menu. She was pulling black veins out of the backs of fleshy prawns. The kitchen was littered with appalling mounds of raw food: A slimy rock cod with bulging fish eyes that pleaded not to be thrown into a pan of hot oil. Tofu, which looked like stacked wedges of rubbery white sponges. A howl soaking dried fungus back to life. A plate of squid, their backs crisscrossed with knife markings so they resembled bicycle tires. Read the following excerpt from Amy Tan’s “Fish Cheeks”.