Here is an excerpt from I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino.
The novel is a fictionalized account of the life of a slave owned by the famous seventeenth-century Spanish painter, Velazquez. In time, Juan de Pareja, who was himself a talented artist, gained his freedom.
In this excerpt, he describes his early life. Read the excerpt. Then do Numbers 32 through 39. I missed my mother terribly, for she had always rocked me to sleep in her arms,
even when I was a large child, and she sang to me softly in her deep rich contralto. Even now that I am an old man, and have come through so much, I can close my eyes and hear her voice humming the songs I loved,
feel her arms around me, warm save for the pressure of her golden bracelet, and enjoy for a fleeting moment that sense of safety and of love with which she surrounded me.
She was a tender creature, lavish with small caresses and kindnesses. When she sat sewing on the mistress's garments, in the light of an eastern window in the early morning,
she pierced the silks and velvets gently with her needle and smoothed the stuff with her slender; sensitive dark hands. Looking up at me, she would smile,
and her melting eyes would send love toward me, like a touch. Ay, my mother: I have some knowledge of painting now, hard gainod over the years of my life, and what a challenge to a painter you would have been!
What a delight and a torment to try to catch the soft sheen of apple green taffeta and garnet velvet of the mistress's gown, the sober brown of yours, the pink and gold of your turban,
picked up by the gold hoops in your ears, and the beautiful dark glow, like that of a ripe purple grape, along your round cheek and slender neck. And how to paint your lovely hands, fluttering over the silks like two dark birds?
This ewerpt from the novel is written in the form of
A. a ballad
B. a folk tale
C. an art history
D. an autobiography