Balzac Questions: pg. 3-20

Vocabulary:
risible (adj.) - deserving to be laughed at rather than taken seriously (syn) ridiculous (ant) humorless
surreptitious (adj.) -done secretly or quickly, in the hope that other people will not notice (syn) furtive (ant) unconcealed
sonata (n.) - a piece of music for one instrument or for one instrument and a piano, usually dived intro three or four parts
audacity (n.) - brave but rude or shocking behaviour (syn) nerve
reactionary (n.)- a person who is opposed to political or social change
vertiginous (adj.)- causing a feeling of dizziness and fear (syn) woozy (ant) well
insidious (adj.) - spreading gradually or without being noticed, but causing serious harm (syn) dangerous (ant) unseductive

Questions...
1. The village headman assumed the violin is just a toy. Lou tried to fool the man by saying this music instrument can play a sonata called "Mozart Is Thinking of Chairman Mao". This made the conflict between the boys and the village is the boys are educated and allowed to do something the villagers are not to do.

2. The key players during the Cultural Revolution are Chairman Mao, and the young intellectuals who are boys and girls who had graduated from high school. The "young intellectuals are sent to countryside to be “re-educated”. The main purpose is probably Mao hated having the "intellectuals" thinking differently from his ideas.

3. Lou and the narrator aren’t really educated. They both went to school but never took an advanced level of education.

4. Lou didn’t want others to feel sorry for his father because he was just admitting his faults and he truly believed no one should be sorry by such an act.

5. The name of the mountain is “the Phoenix of the Sky”was the signify its high altitude; only a great magical bird like a phoenix can fly all the way up to it’s peak.

6. The source comes from cooper. The economy status of this region must be at a good quality because it has a natural resources.

7. Changing the time on their clock, made their time very wise. They learned to be very clever and have other ways to deal with common things.

8. Commonly the reeducation period usually was 2 years. But the fact that their parents were very educated doctors, it made them have a chance of 3 in 1000 to be able to go home.

9. Lou’s stories allowed the people to be entertained and let the time to pass by quickly. This might have insulted the villagers which might have let them hate the boys.