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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. In "Tomorrow is Too Far," who called out to Nonso that there was a snake in the tree below him?

2. In “The American Embassy,” how did the woman get her husband out of the house to safety?

3. In “The Headstrong Historian,” what does Nwamgba’s son Anikwenwa’s name mean?

4. In “The Headstrong Historian,” what did Nwamgba believe killed her husband?

5. In “The Arrangers of Marriage,” what does Odofile tell Chinaza she has to do in order to get ahead in America?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the thing around the character’s neck in the story "The Thing Around Your Neck"?

2. In “The Headstrong Historian,” how did Afamefuna validate Nwamgba’s values in the end of her life?

3. In “The Shivering,” what is it about the events in Nigeria that have Ukamaka so upset?

4. In “The Arrangers of Marriage,” how does the narrator characterize the apartment she arrives in with her husband?

5. In “The Thing Around Your Neck,” what difficulties does Akunna, the you of the story, encounter in dating a white man?

6. In "Tomorrow is Too Far," what caused Nonso to receive preferential treatment among the three children in the story?

7. How does the narrator characterize the rules in America, in "The Thing Around Your Neck"?

8. In “The Shivering,” what causes Ukamaka’s shivering?

9. In “The American Embassy,” what is the woman’s relationship with the man behind her in line?

10. In “The Headstrong Historian,” how does Nwamgba end up sending Anikwenwa to learn English from the mission schools?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Evaluate the final story of The Thing Around Your Neck. Does it ring true to the other stories? Does it address the problems and tensions that preceded it? What are you left wishing for closure on, if anything?

Essay Topic 2

When is The Thing Around Your Neck most itself? What is its characteristic passage, or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?

Essay Topic 3

What is the roles available to women in The Thing Around Your Neck? How are women portrayed? What kinds of choices do they get to make, and what is kept from them? How do they live within or rebel against these limits? How would you evaluate Adichie’s depiction of women in this collection of short stories? How are their roles and knowledge and behavior distinguished from the male characters?

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