[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-343951-105":59,"doc-detail-343951-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","passage-iii-humanities-albany-1958","Passage III - HUMANITIES - Albany, 1958","","Passage III recounts childhood memories in Albany, New York, where daily life feels tied to the nineteenth century through street vendors, bakers, dairies, and streetcars. Early April brings an annual dinner-dance linked to a pharmaceutical institute, and the narrator describes preparations, dress design, and ballroom practice with intimate family rituals. When the city changes, the family’s circumstances shift, and later high-society fittings provoke conflict over work, pride, and dignity, culminating in the mother’s insistence on her identity as a designer.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":15,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/passage-iii-humanities-albany-1958/343951/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/passage-iii-humanities-albany-1958/343951.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Oliver","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-04","2026-09-22",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":52},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What does the narrator compare to the meter of childhood, and why?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The narrator compares it to the rising and plunging of a sewing machine needle—rapid, smooth, and rhythmic, like a distant drum roll—because her mother’s sewing shapes her sense of time and movement.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How is the annual dinner-dance connected to the narrator’s family?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It is sponsored by the pharmaceutical institute where the narrator’s father works. The dinner-dance is the only time the mother would sew for herself, and the couple went out together while the narrator looks forward to it with nostalgia.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What conflict arises when the mother begins sewing for wealthy women?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The father becomes ashamed and angry, complaining they do not need such money and that the women’s contempt makes their home seem servile. The mother defends her work, insisting her value is not determined by others and declaring, “I am a Designer!”","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},343951,1790298600,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":14,"category_name":15,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":52,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":8,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":14},8796095461610,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","3  3  \nPassage III  \nHUMANITIES: This passage is adapted from the essay“Albany, 1958” by Lydia Minatoya. It appeared in her book Talking to High Monks in the Snow (©1992 by Lydia Minatoya) . This story takes place in Albany, New York.  \nThe meter of my childhood was the rising and plunging of a sewing machine needle: rapid and smooth, like an endless distant drum roll. My mother hummed as she sewed. She guided the fabric this way 5 and that. In 1938, she had graduated from a school of costume design, and before World War II, she had her own boutique in Los Angeles. It was a time when the dream of America never seemed finer.  \nThe Albany of my childhood was a festive place, 10 closer in spirit to the nineteenth century than to the twenty-first. Italian pushcart grocers crowded southern city blocks, crafting tiered architectural wonders from fresh produce and pungent sausage . Heavy-legged workhorses clopped along cobblestones, delivering 15 bread from German bakeries and milk from Dutch  \ndairies. A cable car ran along streets named for trees.  \nEach year in early April, an annual dinner-dance was sponsored by the pharmaceutical institute where my father worked as a researcher. A ballroom was  \n20 rented in a downtown hotel. Musicians were hired to play big-band music. The dinner-dance was the only time when my mother would sew for herself. It was the one time when my parents went out, alone, together. I was a romantic child, dreamy and diffuse. For me, the  \n25 dinner-dance was an annual event: looked forward to in long anticipation and back upon with nostalgia.  \nEach year, on a snowy weekday evening, Father would take us window shopping. The deserted downtown streets would be a magical glaze of snow-softened 30 lights and shadowy shop displays. My mother would  \nlinger in front of the mannequins clad in evening apparel. I would follow along, drunk with wonder.  \nEach year before the tape had desiccated on the backs of the New Year’s cards and they had fallen to  \n35 the floor, my mother would have decided on the design for her dinner-dance dress. Then there would be a trip to the fabric store. I would run my hands along graduated rainbows of thread spools. I would watch their changing hues as they shimmered in the light.  \n40 As the dress took form, my parents would practice dancing.  \n“Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow,” Father would mutter with determination as he trod unmincingly on Okaa-chan’s feet and guided her into the walls.  \n45 “Next lady?” he gallantly would inquire. My sister Misa and I would take turns, balancing on the tops of his shoes, as Father swept us around the room.  \nI always thought that Dinner-Dance Eve had some of the magic of Christmas. Every year, I would perch  \n50 on the bathtub’s edge. I would watch my father fix his tie.“See the nice dimple below the knot?” Father would turn from the mirror and bend to show me.“The dimple is very important.” I solemnly would nod—the honored recipient of this arcane cultural wisdom.  \n55 Back in the bedroom, Okaa-chan would slide into her new dress. She would glance at her reflection with modest pleasure. When she moved, I could catch the sweet scent of face powder.  \nWhen I was seven or eight, the window shopping  \n60 and the dinner-dances stopped. The granite façades of the downtown stores were grimy with graffiti. Display windows were boarded with plywood. The elegant hotels had fallen into disrepair. No one danced to bigband music anymore.  \n65 As I grew older, my mother began to sew for wealthy women . The women lived in country homes where sunlight, reflected from swimming pools just beyond French doors, played across fine wood floors.  \nOnce after a luncheon in the city, a woman came  \n70 to our house for a fitting. Standing erect in the doorway, then bowing slightly, my mother met her formally.  \n“Won’t you please come in? May I please take your coat?”  \n“Here you go. Try to put it somewhere clean.”  \n75 Like an eagle, her words slipped regally down a great","cbCaij1Ve4Zn1mKZ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaij1Ve4Zn1mKZ","pdf",38495,"English","# Passage III\n## Childhood Albany and the dinner-dance\n## Window shopping and dress design\n## City decline and the work of sewing\n## Conflict over pride and dignity","[{\"question\":\"What does the narrator compare to the meter of childhood, and why?\",\"answer\":\"The narrator compares it to the rising and plunging of a sewing machine needle—rapid, smooth, and rhythmic, like a distant drum roll—because her mother’s sewing shapes her sense of time and movement.\"},{\"question\":\"How is the annual dinner-dance connected to the narrator’s family?\",\"answer\":\"It is sponsored by the pharmaceutical institute where the narrator’s father works. The dinner-dance is the only time the mother would sew for herself, and the couple went out together while the narrator looks forward to it with nostalgia.\"},{\"question\":\"What conflict arises when the mother begins sewing for wealthy women?\",\"answer\":\"The father becomes ashamed and angry, complaining they do not need such money and that the women’s contempt makes their home seem servile. The mother defends her work, insisting her value is not determined by others and declaring, “I am a Designer!”\"}]","Passage III - HUMANITIES - Albany, 1958 | PDF",1790052604]