- Read the excerpt below and answer the question. At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution a teenage boy together with his classmates paraded their teacher, an old man, through the streets. The boy kicked the teacher hard and broke his ribs. What is suggested by the matter-of-fact tone that the author uses in this excerpt from Ha Jin's "A Decade*? It suggests that this sort of incident is a rare occurrence. It suggests that the author thinks that this incident was a good thing. It suggests that the narrator of the story opposes this incident. It suggests that this sort of incident is commonplace.