View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How was Wilson trying to learn the skills of farming?

2. What faith did Juma claim to be?

3. What birds did Crawford and Elspeth observe doing a mating ritual?

4. How did the settlers assume Mr. Nimmo was making money?

5. How long did it take the workers to build their own huts?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Huxley describe the Kikuyu attitude toward theft?

2. Briefly describe Elspeth's education in Africa.

3. What did the Masai consider the greatest glory of mankind?

4. Why did Mrs. Palmer tell Elspeth Huxley that she should get two of any animal she wished to keep as a pet?

5. How did Mrs. Nimmo react to the wild New Year's party?

6. Why was Tilly so overwhelmed by Africa in the first few weeks in Thika?

7. What kind of person did Ian Crawford appear to be?

8. How did Juma view the local inhabitants outside of Nairobi?

9. What were the Huxley's first impressions upon seeing the land that they had bought?

10. Why did Elspeth get upset at the end of Crawford's story about the whydah birds?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

A discussion about the European versus African concept of the passage of time prompted Lettice Palmer to suggest that perhaps the Europeans were wrong to be attempting to change the African culture. This is one of the only times in the book that a European suggests that the Africans' culture should be left alone. Did the other Europeans share Lettice's view? Did they seem to think about the issue at all or were they more concerned about making their way in Africa, regardless of what happened to the natives? Did the Europeans acknowledge that a complex culture existed around them?

Essay Topic 2

Settler Alec Wilson was determined to learn everything about farming in Africa through textbooks and governmental reports. Elspeth, on the other hand, was for the most part avoiding book learning and creating her own African education through activities and exploration. Write an essay comparing and contrasting these styles of "education." Are there certain subjects that can best be learned through books? Are there others that can best be tackled through actually doing them? In what ways did Wilson's approach illustrate a European approach to education and in what ways did Elspeth's education reflect that of the African children, who did not attend schools? Would book-learning help Wilson in Africa and would hands-on learning help Elspeth once she went back to England?

Essay Topic 3

After Njombo killed a man in a fight, he had to pay a blood price to the victim's family in the form of goats. Write an essay discussing this method of justice. How did this system help keep the peace for the locals? How did the natives maintain peace and order (they were also known not to steal from one another) if there was no threat of arrest or prison? Why was Hereward Palmer determined to introduce Western-style justice to Africa? How would a trial and prison have affected both Njombo and the tribe as a whole? Can there be different cultural approaches to justice? Or is justice black and white?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,068 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample