Read the first two lines from langston hughes’s poem "i, too, sing america."

i, too, sing america.

i am the darker brother.

how do readers know that hughes is alluding to walt whitman’s poem, “i hear america singing”?

both poems have the word “sing.”
both poems have the word “america.”
hughes describes whitman in his poem.
whitman’s poem has a very similar title.

The right answer is the D) Whitman’s poem has a very similar title.

Explanation: Just to elaborate a little on the answer, it can be added that in these two opening lines from his powerful poem, I, Too, Langston Hughes (1902-1967) is clearly referencing Walt Whitman's celebratory poem I Hear America Singing, in which he describes the various sounds he hears coming from American people performing their daily activities—that of the mechanic, the carpenter, the shoemaker, the mother, and so on. Instead of "hearing America singing," Langston is "singing America," in order to raise his voice against the discrimination that African Americans had to endure for centuries in their own country.    

what do u need with

the sentence does not violate the phrase structure second rule (introduced by noam chomsky) because noun phrases consist of a determiner such as a, the or every, and a noun. in the sentence, the noun phrase the cake includes a determiner (the) and a noun (cake).

on the other hand, the first rule indicates that a sentence encloses a noun phrase, followed by a verb phrase. the example sentence can be analysed as follows:

john (n) + ate (v) + the (det) + cake (n).