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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. Obiageli, Nwoye's sister, comes home crying because her water pot is broken. How did her waterpot break?
(a) She was showing off, swaying her waist and the pot fell.
(b) She was pushed by Nwoye's younger brother and fell with her pot, spilling the water and smashing the pot.
(c) She tripped over a stone in the pathway, and fell with her water pot.
(d) She overfilled the pot with water and was unable to carry the weight. The pot tipped and fell.

2. Ezinma offers to bring Okonkwo's chair to the wrestling match for him. Why did he refuse his daughter's offer?
(a) Only grown women carry their husband's chairs.
(b) He will be busy with preparing the wrestlers for the match and wouldn't need the chair.
(c) Carrying the chair is a boy's job.
(d) Men prefer to stand during the wrestling match.

3. What is the one passion that rules Okonkwo's life?
(a) To hate everything his father loved.
(b) To be affluent in money, wives, and children.
(c) To make sure his barn was always filled with yams.
(d) To obtain more wealth than anyone else in Umuofia.

4. What does Ekwefi do after Chielo carries Ezinma away on her back?
(a) She runs to the other wives for solace.
(b) She screams at Okonkwo to go bring Ezinma back.
(c) She runs into her hut in despair.
(d) She follows Chielo.

5. What is the emergency that the great orator announces at the meeting in the marketplace?
(a) The powerful medicine woman of Umuofia dies during the night.
(b) The warriors of Mbaino raid one of the villages of Umuofia.
(c) The yam harvest of one of the village celebrities is stolen from his barn.
(d) The wife of Ogbuefi Udo is murdered in Mbaino when she goes to market.

Short Answer Questions

1. 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?

2. What is the significance of the beating of drums in the village playground, the ilo, where all the great ceremonies and dances of the village take place?

3. How can an observer tell if a communal ceremony is only for the men of the village?

4. 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?

5. How do the women of the clan prepare for the Feast of the New Yam?

Short Essay Questions

1. Do you agree with the old man who said that Okonkwo's palm-kernels had been cracked for him by a benevolent spirit? Justify your answer.

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

3. What is the tradition the in-laws must do for the uri?

4. How do the people of Umuofia justify mutilating the bodies of children who die in infancy or early childhood, refusing to bury them but leaving them in the forest?

5. How would you justify Okonkwo's harsh treatment of his family and his uncontrollable temper?

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

7. Compare the stories of men to the stories of women in Umuofia.

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

9. Describe the Week of Peace celebrated in Umuofia . How does Okonkwo violate this sacred peace and what are the consequences?

10. Compare the differences in the attitudes of the people of Umuofia with regard to a dark night and a moonlit night.

(see the answer keys)

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