1)Why does Miss Moore “take responsibility for the young ones' education”? 2) Are race and socio-economic status important in this story? Why or why not

3) Why does Sylvia feel “shame” about going into the toy store?

4) What lesson do you think Miss Moore trying to teach the children by taking them to the toy store? Do any of the children learn this lesson? Is what Sugar says at the end of the story the lesson that Miss Moore intended?

5) How would you describe Miss Moore's style of teaching? Is it the right style for the children in the story? Do you think she is a good teacher? Why or why not?

6) What is happening to Sylvie at the end of the story? What has she learned, and are her final thoughts consistent with or contradictory to what Sugar says?

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serve the people! ,” smoothly translated by julia lovell, offers an initial sample of yan lianke’s writing to an english-speaking audience. a bluntly drawn, mildly erotic fable, it teases mao zedong by poking fun at a true believer who obeys the chairman’s precepts too literally. to a western sensibility, the broad strokes of yan lianke’s humor would seem to pose little risk of inciting rebellion, whether of the flesh or of the body politic. but then, part of the book’s attraction is that it doesn’t have a western sensibility. it lets the reader see — or rather, intuit — what jokes chinese officials don’t consider funny, and how very little it takes for a writer to be branded an incendiary in 21st-century china, more than three decades after the death of mao, a decade after the death of deng xiaoping and seven years since china entered the world trade organization, a move that would seem to signal a willingness (however wary) to mingle with the rest of the world.

i would believe it would be b., the author wants to draw the reader deeper into the experience