Be sure to choose each answer carefully. You get onlyonetry
to answer each question correctly!
This space contains reference material beginning next to
Question 24.
Use the following poem by Yeats, from which Achebe got
the title for his novel, to answer questions 24-26. Be sure to read the
note after the poem.
“The Second Coming” (By William Butler Yeats)
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Note: The poem shows a falcon (a bird that people can teach to
kill other animals for them) flying in a “gyre." (A gyre is a spiral
- a line that moves upward around a center. The line moves farther and
farther away from the center. The bird is far away and cannot hear the
falconer (the person who controls the falcon). Things fall apart. There
is no center when the falcon flies away. The world now is in anarchy. (Anarchy
is when there is no control or order in the world.) There is blood
and no innocence. (People have only anger and know
only bad things.) The best people have no beliefs, but the worst
people have strong beliefs.
Surely, the world is going to learn something surprising. Surely, the
Second Coming is going to happen. (The Second Coming usually means that
Jesus is coming again, but in this poem it means something bad is
coming.) When the speaker in the poem thinks of “the Second Coming,” he
is troubled when he sees the spirit (the soul) of all humans put
together. In the desert, a giant sphinx (a shape with a lion's body and
a man's head with eyes like suns) moves. The sphinx is the center and
desert birds fly around it. Night comes and the speaker knows that the
sphinx has been asleep for twenty centuries. The sphinx was only a bad
dream when people believed in Jesus, but now an unknown beast (an
unknown dangerous animal) comes to Bethlehem (the place where Jesus was
born) to be born.
The poem says that today's world is ending.
A new world with different and dangerous beliefs is beginning.
For Questions 1-12, please mark the letter of the correct definition of the given vocabulary word.
infuriating
(adj.) irritating
(making someone feel angry and unhappy)
(adj.) unnecessary
(not needed)
idolatrous
(adj.) resonant
(deep, loud, and long-lasting)
(adj.) heathen
(not part of the religion of the main part of a society)
resolute
(adj.) strong-willed
(determined; not wanting to be stopped from doing something)
(adj.) resonant
(deep, loud, and long-lasting)
pacification
(n.) neutralizing
(making people peaceful after they have been angry)
(adj.) heathen
(not part of the religion of the main part of a society)
clamor
(v.) to yell
(to make a loud noise)
(adj.) pale
(a white skin color or a light that is not strong)
palaver
(n.) talk
(adj.) unnecessary
(not needed)
amulet
(adj.) pale
(a white skin color or a light that is not strong)
(n.) a charm
(a small piece of jewelry like a necklace or ring people wear to protect
themselves from something bad)
desecrate
(v.) to defile
(to hurt something that people believe is connected to God or to their
religion)
(adj.) irritating
(making someone feel angry and unhappy)
wan
(adj.) pale
(a white skin color or a light that is not strong)
(n.) a charm
(a small piece of jewelry like a necklace or ring people wear
to protect themselves from something bad)
superfluous
(adj.) irritating
(making someone feel angry and unhappy)
(adj.) unnecessary
(not needed)
What does the following passage from the novel best show? “The drums were still beating, persistent and unchanging. Their sound was no longer separate from the village.” (44)
a symbol for the strength, power, and heart of the Ibo people
the skill
(the ability) the Ibo people have at making musical instruments
The story at the heart of Things Fall Apart can be considered a tragedy because…
...of the disastrous downfall of Okonkwo and the Ibo way of life
(of the sad life of Okonkwo and the way the Ibo culture was
lost)
…of the failure of the missionaries to establish power in Umuofia
(of the missionaries not being able to bring Christianity to the Ibo people)
What is ironic about the nature of Okonkwo’s exile from his fatherland?
He
did not do anything wrong.
He murders Ikemefuna before the accidental killing that exiles him.
What best describes the story of the Earth and the Sky that withheld rain for seven years?
It’s a
myth because it’s a story handed down by oral tradition, features non-human characters, and explains rain.
(It's a myth because it is a story parents tell their children to
explain rain.)
It’s a
proverb because it is very short and tries to convey the truth about the origin of rain.
(It's a proverb because it is short and explains rain.)
What is Okonkwo’s tragic flaw? (What is the weakness
that makes it impossible for Okonkwo to be successful?)
his pride and fear of appearing weak
(his happiness about what he can do and his feeling that something bad will
happen if people think he is not strong)
his poor relationship with his son, Nwoye
(his inability to communicate and feel good about his son Nwoye)
What is one of the major themes (lessons) of the novel?
Working together can protect a group’s customs and traditions from
other ideas.
Suicide
(killing yourself) is a good idea if there is no escape from your problems.
Which of the following is true about Okonkwo’s father?
He isn’t good at growing yams and has very few.
He
only holds one title and is unhappy because of it.
Why does Okonkwo commit suicide? (Why does Okonkwo kill
himself?)
After
killing a clan member (a member of the village), he does not want to be hanged in the court of the white man.
He
knows that the ancient traditions (the old ways) of the clan are gone, so it no longer matters how he dies.
What is ironic (unexpected) about Okonkwo’s clan members
saying they will not cut down the dead man’s body?
As Okonkwo was never afraid of death or killing, it’s unexpected that his death would make his tribe afraid.
Okonkwo fought hard to protect
village customs, and it is a custom that stops the others from touching a suicide victim.
What is a man’s “chi”?
his personal god
his ability to
grow yams
Which custom (tradition) of the clan (village) does Obierika
not like?
A man needs more than one wife.
A man should be punished for a “female crime.”
How does an Ibo man get a message from the gods at the Agbala shrine?
(A shrine is a religious place.)
He
crawls into the shrine (moves into the shrine on his hands and knees) and listens to a priestess
(a female religious worker) say what the gods want.
He
prays to (speaks to) his personal god or chi.
Which event in the story is explained by the following proverb? “As the elders said, if one finger brought oil it soiled the others.” (125)
Okonkwo is banished
(sent away) from the tribe for accidentally killing a clan member (a person
in the village).
Husbands eat exactly one dish prepared by each of their wives.
Which of the following is the best summary explaining
the meaning of the poem’s first stanza
(first paragraph)?
Anarchy
can be a good thing if it makes the old world fall apart.
When
ideas that center a culture do not continue, society falls apart.
How does the second stanza (the second paragraph) continue the ideas in the first stanza?
It
says anarchy is good because the Second Coming will make the problems of the
last twenty centuries go away.
It
shows that a Second Coming of very bad things is to be expected as society falls.
Why did Chinua Achebe choose a line from this poem for the title of his novel?
The
“Second Coming” is something that the missionaries (teachers of
Christianity) believe is near and preach about it to the Ibo people.
The
society of the Ibo cannot continue because the missionaries took away the
beliefs of the Ibo people which had held them together.
Pick the correct verbs for the following sentence. (HW30)
Every new thought and feeling _________ the prodigy (natural skill) in me, and neither gymnastics
(physical exercises) nor predictions (ideas about the future) _______ my real skill.
reveals; were
("Reveals" means "shows.")
reveal; were
Which sentence is written correctly?
Each of our family members always contributes to the march of dimes, mother said.
“Each of our family members always contributes to the March of Dimes,” Mother said.