Once i built a railroad, made it run, made it race against time. once i built a railroad, now it's done— which idea is conveyed in the excerpt? the speaker does not want to build rails anymore. all the necessary railroad tracks have been completed. the american railroads are the fastest in the world. the speaker used to have work, but now there isn’t any.

The idea that is conveyed in the excerpt is ‘The speaker used to have work, but now there isn’t any.’ For example are the beggars. Why the beggar is left to the streets, when the job is done and after all the hard work he had done. He wanted people to realize that beggars are also important to the society during the Great Depression.

"why don't you like me the way i am? " i cried. "i'm not a genius! i can't play the piano, and even if i could, i wouldn't go on tv if you paid me a million dollars! "

explanation:

the conflict between jing-mei and her mother is over jing-mei's piano lessons since her mother wants her to become a prodigy but she does not want to play it any more.