Be sure to choose each answer carefully. You get only one try to answer each question correctly!
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Question 24.
Excerpt from The Namesake
by Jhumpa Lahiri
At this part of the novel, Gogol and his family
return from a trip to his parent’s homeland of Calcutta, India,
where they have spent eight months visiting their family.
Within twenty-four hours he and his family are back on Pemberton
Road, the late August grass in need of trimming, a quart of milk and
some bread left by their tenants in the refrigerator, four grocery
bags on the staircase filled with mail. At first the Gangulis sleep
most of the day and are wide awake at night, gorging themselves on
toast at three in the morning, unpacking the suitcases one by one.
Though they are home they are disconcerted by the space, by the
uncompromising silence that surrounds them. They still feel somehow
in transit, still disconnected from their lives, bound up in an
alternate schedule, an intimacy only the four of them share. But by
the end of the week, after his mother’s friends come to admire her
new gold and saris, after the eight suitcases have been aired out on
the sun deck and put away, after the chanachur is poured into
Tupperware and the smuggled mangoes eaten for breakfast with cereal
and tea, it’s as if they’ve never been gone. “How dark you’ve
become,” his parents’ friends say regretfully to Gogol and Sonia. On
this end, there is no effort involved. They retreat to their three
rooms, to their three separate beds, to their thick mattresses and
pillows and fitted sheets. After a single trip to the supermarket,
the refrigerator and the cupboards fill with familiar labels:
Skippy, Hood, Bumble Bee, Land O’ Lakes. His mother enters the
kitchen and prepares their meals once again; his father drives the
car and mows the lawn and returns to the university. Gogol and Sonia
sleep for as long as they want, watch television, make themselves
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at any time of day. Once again
they are free to quarrel, to tease each other, to shout and holler
and say shut up. They take hot showers, speak to each other in
English, ride their bicycles around the neighborhood. They call up
their American friends, who are happy enough to see them but ask
them nothing about where they’ve been. And so the eight months are
put behind them, quickly shed, quickly forgotten, like clothes worn
for a special occasion, or for a season that has passed, suddenly
cumbersome, irrelevant to their lives.
For Questions 1-12, please
mark the letter of the correct definition of the given vocabulary word.
ensconce
unsympathetic
to secure
hate
to mask
callous
unsympathetic
to secure
hate
to mask
cataleptic
showiness
sad
complaining
frozen
dissemble
unsympathetic
to secure
hate
to mask
aversion
unsympathetic
to secure
hate
to mask
practicality
to hold
sick
necessity
wreckage
remonstration
showiness
sad
complaining
frozen
transfix
to hold
sick
necessity
wreckage
dyspeptic
to hold
sick
necessity
wreckage
flotsam
to hold
sick
necessity
wreckage
melancholy
showiness
sad
complaining
frozen
ostentation
showiness
sad
complaining
frozen
Look at the sentence below. Irene a homebody rarely left the house in fact she didn’t even go out to buy wool.
In the example sentence, which of the following words should NOT be followed by a comma?
Irene
homebody
house
fact
Look at the sentence below. Irene a homebody rarely left the house in fact she didn’t even go out to buy wool.
In the example sentence, which of the following words should be followed by a semicolon?
homebody
house
fact
out
Who has the worst sea sickness?
Richard Parker
Pi
Ravi
Orange Juice
What literary device is exemplified by the words “TREEEE” (p.97), “HUMPF” (p.98), and “yip” (p.114)?
onomatopoeia
alliteration
hyperbole
personification
Why does Pi believe that his brother, Ravi, was right about Pi being “the next goat” (p. 99)?
He abandons ship without saving his family.
He is thrown into a lifeboat by the crew.
He gets up and goes outside during the storm.
He helps Richard Parker get into the lifeboat.
What dilemma causes Pi to spend hours hanging off the lifeboat by an oar?
He doesn’t have the strength to get into the boat.
sharks in the water; a tiger in the boat
He wants to use the oar as a rudder to steer.
family on the ship; safety on the boat
What does Pi mean by, “…a hyena’s catholicity of taste is so indiscriminate…” (p. 123)?
Hyenas will eat anything.
Hyenas are picky eaters.
Hyenas have good taste in the finer things.
Hyenas are indifferent to other animals.
At the end of Ch. 46, which animal (does it appear) will die first, and how will it die?
Orange Juice; sickness
Richard Parker; drowning
hyena; starvation
zebra; eaten by hyena
Which sentence is written correctly?
Yes, Mary, their going to welcome whoever wants to join, whether Democrat or Republican; it’s that simple.
Yes, Mary, they’re going to welcome whoever wants to join, whether Democrat or Republican; it’s that simple.
Yes mary their going to welcome whomever want to join weather democrat or rep.
Yes, Mary, they’re going to welcome whoever wants to join, whether Democrat or Republican, it’s that simple.
How does Orange Juice get from the sinking Tsimtsum to Pi’s life boat, and what does this prove?
Orange Juice floats from the Tsimtsum to the lifeboat on a bunch of bananas, proving that bananas do indeed float.
Orange Juice swims from the Tsimtsum to the lifeboat, proving that orangutans can swim.
Orange Juice climbs on a floating piece of wood from the Tsimtsum to the lifeboat, proving that orangutans are intelligent.
Orange Juice jumps from the Tsimtsum to the lifeboat, proving that orangutans are smart.
Pi narrates, “When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival” (Ch. 45, p.120). He is specifically referring to something that happened on the boat that he regrets ignoring. What does Pi regret, should he regret it, is his regret understandable, and would you have reacted like Pi or differently in the same situation?
Pi is specifically referring to the sharks terrifying Orange Juice on the lifeboat. The teen regrets not protecting Orange Juice by killing the sharks. In my opinion, he shouldn’t regret not helping Orange Juice because, in trying to kill the sharks, he could have lost his own life. This noted, his regret is most certainly understandable in that it is a display of empathy for another living creature, Orange Juice. It makes sense that Pi, a human being capable of feeling empathy, feels bad that he is so helpless in this particular situation. For the first time, Pi finds himself confronting the laws of the animal kingdom, which are very different than the laws of human society. Since he’s never had to deal directly with a savage world not ruled by human mores, Pi’s regret is an expression of his confused feelings of helplessness. I’m fairly sure that, as a human being, I would react similarly to the unfamiliar situation, and that I would feel the same amount of regret. Surely, Pi’s reaction to this sitaution and his feelings about it are are typical for a civilized human facing this set of circumstances.
Pi is specifically referring to helping Richard Parker get on the lifeboat. The teen regrets not protecting himself and the other animals. In my opinion, he shouldn’t regret helping Richard Parker because, in helping the strongest animal, he could have saved his own life. This noted, his regret is most certainly understandable in that it is a display of empathy for other living creatures, the other animals. It makes sense that Pi, a human being capable of feeling empathy, feels bad that he is so helpless in this particular situation. For the first time, Pi finds himself confronting the laws of the animal kingdom, which are very different than the laws of human society. Since he’s never had to deal directly with a savage world not ruled by human mores, Pi’s regret is an expression of his confused feelings of helplessness. I’m fairly sure that, as a human being, I would react similarly to the unfamiliar situation, and that I would feel the same amount of regret. Surely, Pi’s reaction to this sitaution and his feelings about it are are typical for a civilized human facing this set of circumstances.
Pi is specifically referring to leaving the ship without his family. The teen regrets not fighting off the crew. In my opinion, he shouldn’t regret not fighting the crew because, in trying to do so, he could have lost his own life. This noted, his regret is most certainly understandable in that it is a display of familial attachment, the deep connection of love. It makes sense that Pi, a human being capable of feeling empathy, feels bad that he is so helpless in this particular situation. For the first time, Pi finds himself confronting adulthood, which is very different than the innocence of childhood. Since he’s never had to deal directly with a savage world ruled by incomprehensible human mores, Pi’s regret is an expression of his helplessness and the absence of help from the gods. I’m fairly sure that, as a human being, I would react similarly to the horrible situation, and that I would feel the same amount of regret. Surely, Pi’s reaction to this sitaution and his feelings about it are are typical for a boy facing this set of circumstances.
Pi is specifically referring to the zebra basically being eaten alive by the hyena on the lifeboat. The teen regrets not protecting the zebra by killing the hyena. In my opinion, he shouldn’t regret not helping the zebra because, in trying to kill the hyena, he could have lost his own life. This noted, his regret is most certainly understandable in that it is a display of empathy for another living creature, the zebra. It makes sense that Pi, a human being capable of feeling empathy, feels bad that he is so helpless in this particular situation. For the first time, Pi finds himself confronting the laws of the animal kingdom, which are very different than the laws of human society. Since he’s never had to deal directly with a savage world not ruled by human mores, Pi’s regret is an expression of his confused feelings of helplessness. I’m fairly sure that, as a human being, I would react similarly to the unfamiliar situation, and that I would feel the same amount of regret. Surely, Pi’s reaction to this sitaution and his feelings about it are are typical for a civilized human facing this set of circumstances.
Read the excerpt from The Namesake which has the sentence: "They call up their American friends, who are happy enough to see them but ask them nothing about where they’ve been."
Gogol's and Sonia's interactions with their friends contribute to theme of
disconnectedness between cultures.
the cruelty of children.
jealousy among siblings.
the pressure to fit in.
In the excerpt from The Namesake, what effect does the author achieve by creating a list of the family’s routine activities and the things they buy at the supermarket after returning home to the United States?
It builds tension as the family slowly realizes that life in the United States is unfulfilling compared to their experience in India.
It provides a sense of momentum and excitement as the family gets readjusted to life back home in the United States.
It gives the impression that each routine chore the family performs in the United States takes them that much further away from India.
It creates a sense that life back home in the United States is filled with more variety than their experience in India.
Read the following sentence from The Namesake: "Once again they are free to quarrel, to tease each other, to shout and holler and say shut up."
This excerpt suggests that Gogol and Sonia
had developed a closer relationship over the course of their time in India.
were expected to behave differently in India than they would in the United States.
had grown hostile toward each other over the course of the long flight back from India.
were disappointed to be back home in the United States after having so few responsibilities while in India.