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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Jonathan's overall attitude or mood in the first paragraph of the story?

2. What did Jonathan mix with his palm wine?

3. The Iwegbu family house was missing all its doors and ____.

4. How many days did Jonathan stand in line for the "windfall?"

5. What did the people call the award or payment?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the greeting "happy survival" signify?

2. What does Jonathan realize after the soldier tries to commandeer his bicycle?

3. How does Jonathan acquire building materials?

4. Who uses Jonathan's new service?

5. What could Jonathan's home and the destroyed concrete edifice symbolize about how the civil war impacted Nigeria and Biafra?

6. In Paragraph 2, how did Maria get extra food for the family?

7. How does Jonathan behave after receiving his "egg-rasher?"

8. Besides his thankfulness of his present survival, how does Jonathan feel about the future for him and his family?

9. What happened to a man who got his payment a few days before Jonathan received his payment?

10. How does the Iwegbu family behavior show their ability to adapt and survive?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain how this story deals with the presence of an unstable government and how this affects the people in the story.

Essay Topic 2

Based on the exchange of Biafran and Nigerian pounds in the story, discuss how the civil war affected both currencies and how this affected Jonathan and the other civil war survivors.

Essay Topic 3

Achebe presents several themes in this story. How does the Iwegbu family embody each of these specific themes: survival, family cohesiveness, and resourcefulness?

(see the answer keys)

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