Mr. Fornnarino's English 2, Practice Quiz 14

 

This space contains reference material beginning next to Question 13.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To answer Questions 13-18, please read the following passage from Chapter 11 of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Choose the best responses to the prompts next to the passage. There is one and only one correct answer to each prompt.

 

Chapter 11, pages 107-108

“Ekwefi could already see the hills looming in the moonlight. They formed a circular ring with a break at one point through which the foot-track led to the centre of the circle.

 

As soon as the priestess stepped into this ring of hills her voice was not only doubled in strength but was thrown back on all sides. It was indeed the shrine of a great god. Ekwefi picked her way carefully and quietly. She was already beginning to doubt the wisdom of her coming. Nothing would happen to Ezinma, she thought. And if anything happened to her could she stop it? She would not dare to enter the underground caves. Her coming was quite useless, she thought.

 

As these things went through her mind she did not realize how close they were to the cave mouth. And so when the priestess with Ezinma on her back disappeared through a hole hardly big enough to pass a hen, Ekwefi broke into a run as though to stop them. As she stood gazing at the circular darkness which had swallowed them, tears gushed from her eyes, and she swore within her that if she heard Ezinma cry she would rush into the cave to defend her against all the gods in the world. She would die with her.

 

Having sworn that oath, she sat down on a stony ledge and waited. Her fear had vanished. She could hear the priestess' voice, all its metal taken out of it by the vast emptiness of the cave. She buried her face in her lap and waited.

 

She did not know how long she waited. It must have been a very long time. Her back was turned on the footpath that led out of the hills. She must have heard a noise behind her and turned round sharply. A man stood there with a machete in his hand. Ekwefi uttered a scream and sprang to her feet.

 

‘Don't be foolish,’  said Okonkwo's voice. ‘I thought you were going into the shrine with Chielo,’ he mocked. Ekwefi did not answer. Tears of gratitude filled her eyes. She knew her daughter was safe.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To answer Questions 19-24, please read the following passage from Chapter 13 of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Choose the best responses to the prompts next to the passage. There is one and only one correct answer to each prompt.

 

 

Chapter 13, Pages 124-125

“Darkness was around the corner, and the burial was near. Guns fired the last salute and the cannon rent the sky. And then from the centre of the delirious fury came a cry of agony and shouts of horror. It was as if a spell had been cast. All was silent. In the centre of the crowd a boy lay in a pool of blood. It was the dead man's sixteen-year-old son, who with his brothers and half-brothers had been dancing the traditional farewell to their father. Okonkwo's gun had exploded and a piece of iron had pierced the boy's heart.

 

The confusion that followed was without parallel in the tradition of Umuofia. Violent deaths were frequent, but nothing like this had ever happened.

 

The only course open to Okonkwo was to flee from the clan. It was a crime against the earth goddess to kill a clansman, and a man who committed it must flee from the land. The crime was of two kinds, male and female. Okonkwo had committed the female, because it had been inadvertent. He could return to the clan after seven years.

 

That night he collected his most valuable belongings into head-loads. His wives wept bitterly and their children wept with them without knowing why. Obierika and half a dozen other friends came to help and to console him. They each made nine or ten trips carrying Okonkwo's yams to store in Obierika's barn. And before the cock crowed Okonkwo and his family were fleeing to his motherland. It was a little village called Mbanta, just beyond the borders of Mbaino.

 

As soon as the day broke, a large crowd of men from Ezeudu's quarter stormed Okonkwo's compound, dressed in garbs of war. They set fire to his houses, demolished his red walls, killed his animals and destroyed his barn. It was the justice of the earth goddess, and they were merely her messengers. They had no hatred in their hearts against Okonkwo. His greatest friend, Obierika, was among them. They were merely cleansing the land which Okonkwo had polluted with the blood of a clansman.

 

Obierika was a man who thought about things. When the will of the goddess had been done, he sat down in his obi and mourned his friend's calamity. Why should a man suffer so grievously for an offence he had committed inadvertently? But although he thought for a long time he found no answer. He was merely led into greater complexities. He remembered his wife's twin children, whom he had thrown away. What crime had they committed? The Earth had decreed that they were an offence on the land and must be destroyed. And if the clan did not exact punishment for an offence against the great goddess, her wrath was loosed on all the land and not just on the offender. As the elders said, if one finger brought oil it soiled the others.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To answer Questions 25-29, please read the following character analysis excerpt about Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Choose the best responses to the prompts next to the passage. There is one and only one correct answer to each prompt.

 

The protagonist of Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is also considered a tragic hero. A tragic hero holds a position of power and prestige, chooses his course of action, possesses a tragic flaw, and gains awareness of circumstances that lead to his fall. Okonkwo's tragic flaw is his fear of weakness and failure.

 

In his thirties, Okonkwo is a leader of the Igbo community of Umuofia. Achebe describes him as "tall and huge" with "bushy eyebrows and [a] wide nose [that gives] him a very severe look." When Okonkwo walks, his heels barely touch the ground, like he walks on springs, "as if he [is] going to pounce on somebody." Okonkwo "stammers slightly" and his breathing is heavy.

 

Okonkwo is renowned as a wrestler, a fierce warrior, and a successful farmer of yams (a "manly" crop). He has three wives and many children who live in huts on his compound. Throughout his life, he wages a never ending battle for status; his life is dominated by the fear of weakness and failure. He is quick to anger, especially when dealing with men who are weak, lazy debtors like his father. However, Okonkwo overcompensates for his father's womanly (weak) ways, of which he is ashamed, because he does not tolerate idleness or gentleness. Even though he feels inward affection at times, he never portrays affection toward anyone. Instead, he isolates himself by exhibiting anger through violent, stubborn, irrational behavior. Okonkwo demands that his family work long hours despite their age or limited physical stamina, and he nags and beats his wives and son, Nwoye, who Okonkwo believes is womanly like his father, Unoka.

 

Okonkwo is impulsive; he acts before he thinks.

Consequently, Okonkwo offends the Igbo people and their traditions as well as the gods of his clan. Okonkwo is advised not to participate in the murder of Ikefemuna, but he actually kills Ikefemuna because he is "afraid of being thought weak."

 

Chua, John, and Suzanne Pavlos. CliffsNotes on Things Fall Apart. 28 Mar 2017 </literature/t/things-fall-apart/book-summary>.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To answer Questions 32-34, please read "The Savoy." Choose the best responses to the prompts next to the passage. There is one and only one correct answer to each prompt.

 

 

 

 

                                     The Savoy
                              by Scott C. Mikula

“Them boys got magic in their feet,” Momma said, leaning out the window while I sat on the fire escape. “You best come inside now, Eugene. I wish God’d saw fit to put magic in your feet, but he didn’t, and I won’t have you frettin’ over something you can’t change.”

I hated when Momma said that. Why’d God put me right ’cross the street from the Savoy Ballroom, if he didn’t want me to dance? Why’d he have me born with a messed up leg just to fill my heart with rhythms I could never express?

I crawled in through the window, but my thoughts were still on the boys and girls down on Lenox Avenue. They had nothing but their own clapping for a beat, but they’d practice their dance moves till the ballroom opened. Frankie was the wildest of them, flipping the girl over his shoulder or catching her from a flying leap—always trying out some daring new “air step” to one-up the others.

Soon light from the windows of the second-floor ballroom would blaze into the night, the music would strike up, and the dancers would crowd inside. I heard that music near every night, but Momma couldn’t ever spare me the thirty cents to go to the Savoy myself.

That’s why I let Willa Mae talk me into sneaking in.

I beat out a rhythm on the kitchen table while Willa Mae worked on her footwork. She was one of the real dancers—one of those that practiced with Frankie down on the street—but she was my friend, too, and she put up with my handicapped leg. Sometimes we’d brave Momma’s consternation and push all the living room furniture aside so we could try out some moves. But today my leg ached, so I just watched Willa Mae step, step, triple-stepping to the drumming of my hands.

“Don’t you want to try dancing to a real swing band?” she called. Sweat clung to her face, but she didn’t stop moving. “If we get there after the bands set up, we can sneak in the delivery entrance on 141st.”

Willa Mae was poor like me, and I knew she’d snuck in more than once herself. Momma would be working till late, and we probably wouldn’t get caught.

“It’s Benny Goodman tonight, battlin’ Chick Webb for King of Swing.”

Benny Goodman and Chick Webb! I’d only heard Goodman’s big band orchestra on our tinny old Victrola. His drummer was the best, maybe. But against Chick? My mind was made up.

The delivery entrance was halfway down a side street. Willa Mae waved for me to follow as she tried the handle on one of the double doors. Sure enough, it was unlocked.

“Hey, you kids!” I froze. Willa Mae’s eyes went wide. Leaning against a parked car was one of the bandmen, a portly man in a suit and tie. “You aren’t supposed to—”

That’s all I heard before Willa Mae yanked me through the door. “C’mon, Gene!”

I stumbled after her as we ran down a long hallway. Tantalizing music filtered through the floor from upstairs, but my heart was beating so fiercely I could hardly hear it.

“I thought you said no one’d be around,” I panted.

“I got us in, didn’t I?”

Willa Mae led me up a dim staircase to the main hall.

Everyone knew music at the Savoy never stopped, but I’d always wondered how the band could play all night without a break. The answer was two bands, on side-by-side bandstands. As Chick’s band wound down, Benny’s musicians jumped in, eager to prove they could swing harder and faster. I saw the bandman from outside slip in behind the drums.

I grinned at Willa Mae. “Dance?”

Shyly at first, I took Willa Mae’s hand and put my other arm around her back. Then the music swept us up, and we were dancing. I’d done the steps before at home, but it’s something else entirely when the horns are blaring their solos and the floor is vibrating under your feet. I was in heaven, and that band was my choir of angels!

But my angels had it in for me that night. Those bandmen played faster and harder, like their very souls were on the line, and my leg couldn’t keep up. It crumpled. I landed hard on my tailbone.

“Man,” said a voice, “I never seen a butt planted on the floor quite like that.” Frankie stood in front of me, all lanky arms and legs. He offered me a hand, but I knew the rest of his gang must be laughing at me.

Tears stung my eyes, but I was more furious than in pain. I swatted Frankie’s hand away, and stalked off to find a table.

Willa Mae watched me go, but I wouldn’t meet her eye. Soon enough I saw her dancing with Frankie, and that only made me madder. He swung her out, and she twisted her hips with practiced grace, earning some whoops from the crowd. Frankie, made Willa Mae look like a queen. Why'd she ever put up with my clumsy dancing?

I should’ve been able to dance like that. I could see Frankie’s feet, almost a blur, and the syncopated rhythm of his steps. I beat that rhythm out on the table in front of me, at first just imitating it, but then varying it, improvising, playing with the music that the band poured out.

Momma was right, God hadn’t seen fit to let me dance like that. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t be resentful about it.

Somebody slid into the chair next to me as the bands switched again. I looked up—it was the drummer that had yelled at us before. Perfect. He might as well haul me out by my collar.

But he said, “You feel it, don’t you? Like you’re not moving to the music, but the music is moving you.”

I shrugged. “I sure don’t have magic in my feet, not like they do.”

“I can’t speak to your feet, son, but I reckon your hands have magic to spare.” He nodded at the table, where I still beat out my rhythm without even realizing it. “You should try these.”

He produced a pair of well-worn drumsticks. I took them, not sure what to say. Could I really do what he did, make the music that brought the dancers to life?

No, it wasn’t a question. I would. I’d practice every day, just like Frankie and his friends out on the street, until I was one of the bandmen the dancers cheered and stomped for.

I looked out on the dance floor, found Frankie and Willa Mae, and an impish smile crossed my face as I beat my sticks to a wild rhythm. If they thought the music made them sweat now, just wait till I made it behind the drums on the Savoy bandstand!

For Questions 1-12, please mark the letter of the correct definition of the given vocabulary word.