Watch the following video and answer the questions. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaoU1CPggHs

Spring Festivities by Eileen Chong

The feeling begins in the stomach

a stone pit swallowed by accident

indigestible as homesickness.

My husband reminds me I write poems in threes

three lines, three pathways.

One for the old life

one for the new days to come

and one for the hours I do not notice

as they pass.

I bought 12 mandarin oranges on the

eve of the new year

on the first day we took them to my parents' home.

My father gave me oranges and grapefruit in return.

I did not know why or what to do with them.

On the second day, I woke to the sun's rays across my face.

In the kitchen, my husband sliced the fruit

and squeezed each half.

He saved the pulp, added grated ginger

then handed me a glass of bright juice.

it was sweet and cold and it filled me.

I consume his love and care with greed.

Once I watched a video of 40 men

crouched around a concrete tank brimming with water.

Holding a frame larger than our apartment

to the count of one voice they hoist, dip, and lift.

They coaxed a white pulp to flow and settle across a

tightly stretched cloth mesh.

They move through a complex dance,

four arms sunk in liquid,

feet marching from tank to drying rack and back again.

On the morning news, blond children speak Mandarin

and write the character for prosperity repeatedly,

perfectly.

I reach for paper and ink.

I mark this page.

I seek an address.

I want to be delivered home.

Based on the poem Spring Festivities by Eileen Chong, answer the following questions: 

1. What is the overall mood of the poem? How does she deliver the poem? (ie. Is she happy, longing, sad, bitter … etc)

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1. Describe the speaker of the poem. Who is she and what does she desire? Clue: Why did Eileen Chong talk about the “12 mandarins”, “40 men” and “blond children writing the character prosperity”? The 12 mandarins represented good luck in lunar new year and the 40 men in the poem were making paper sheets to write stuff on.

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1. This poem is part of a collection called ‘Poems for the Moon’ by ABC Australia. What does the poem tell us about the Asian - Australian experience?

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Read the text above and answer the questions.

1. Describe one way in why Amy was unkind to her grandfather.

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2. Explain how Amy's attitude to speaking Chinese changes.

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