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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Under what circumstances will the people of Umuofia consult Agbala, the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves?
(a) To find out if their wives are being faithful.
(b) To ask for wealth, prosperity, and many newborn sons.
(c) To ask for a cure for a fatal disease.
(d) When they are followed by misfortune, when they have a dispute with their neighbors, to see their futures, and to talk to the spirits.

2. What happens to twins born in Umuofia?
(a) They are considered good luck and raised by the priestess of the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves.
(b) They are drowned.
(c) They are revered as sacred above all other infants.
(d) They are placed in earthenware pots and thrown away in the forest.

3. Why does Okonkwo beat his second wife, Ojiugo, during the sacred Week of Peace?
(a) She is caught with another man.
(b) She disagrees with what Okonkwo has to say.
(c) She is at a friend's house and does not prepare Okonkwo's afternoon meal.
(d) She cooks a meal that Okonkwo does not like.

4. Okonkwo of Umuofia is the emissary of war to Mbaino. What does Mbaino give him as an offering for the murder of the woman from Umuofia?
(a) The wife of the murderer.
(b) A large monetary payment for the people of Umofia.
(c) A fifteen-year-old boy named Ikemefuna and a young virgin to replace the murdered woman.
(d) One of Mbaino's most powerful warriors.

5. Okonkwo and the men of Umuofia take Ikemefuna deep into the forest and kill him with machetes. Who gives the final thrust of the machete that ends Ikemefuna's life?
(a) Nwoye
(b) Ogbuefi Ezendu
(c) Okonkwo
(d) Okafo

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the agreed upon bride-price for Akueke?

2. Obierika's daughter, Akueke, is sixteen, just the right age for marrying. How does her suitor and his relatives determine if she is ripe for marriage?

3. Nine out of ten of Ekwefi's children die in infancy. After the second death, Okonkwo goes to the medicine man to find out why this is happening. What explanation does the diviner give?

4. Obiageli, Nwoye's sister, comes home crying because her water pot is broken. How did her waterpot break?

5. Which of the spectators of the wrestling match are allowed to sit around the huge circle of the wrestling ring?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe how Okonkwo continues to worry about his son Nwoye, especially after the death of Ikemefuna.

2. Summarize how the people pass the time during the rainy season.

3. Explain why Okoye, Unoka's friend, is considered a successful man.

4. Describe the weather patterns the year Okonkwo promises to farm the eight hundred yam seeds from Nwakibie, and how they affect the yams.

5. Explain why sharecropping is a very difficult way to get ahead for Okonkwo, and how it impacts his parents and sisters.

6. Why don't the people want an even wrestling match, ending in a tie?

7. Explain how Ikemefuna is a good friend to Obiageli on the day of the New Yam Festival.

8. Analyze Okonkwo's feelings for Enzinma and Ekwefi, and how they relate to his fear of weakness.

9. Who do you think benefits from the judgment of the egwuwu in the trial of Uzowulu and his wife and family and why?

10. Relate how Okonkwo is able to plant his first yam-seeds when his father gives him nothing.

(see the answer keys)

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