English - Cultural Reading Study Guide

vendor

a person who sells things, usually in a market or public area

Ghosts: What historical event is the focus of this story?

The Nigerian Civil War

fabrication

a falsehood or lie

diffidence

shyness or unassertiveness, due to a lack of confidence

relent

to become less harsh or severe; yield

urbane

well-mannered and self-assured

Ghosts: Where does our narrator's daughter live?

Nwoye's second daughter grows up to be a doctor in Connecticut.

imperturbable

calm; hard to upset

adulation

excessive praise and flattery

deftly

in a manner that is especially skillful and fast in movement

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents: How does Mami feel about Chucha sleeping in a coffin? What is the outcome of this dispute?

Mami first disagreed with Chucha's idea because she thinks it's weird. Later on, she changed her mine and let Chucha's sleeps in the coffin as how she wants it because Mami sees that Chucha never asks for anything, but she gave everything to the family.

Ghosts: Why did James think Ikenna was dead?

On July 6, 1967, Nwoye family saw Ikenna died "with the sun a strange fiery red in the sky and nearby the boom-boom-boom of shelling as the federal soldiers advanced." When they were evacuating, they saw Ikenna's car going back to campus. Nwoye stopped to tell Ikenna to go back, but he still went back ahead because '"I have to get some manuscripts." Or maybe he said, "I have to get some materials."'

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents: What happened in Chucha's life that led her to the narrator's family?

On the night of the massacre, they proclaimed that all black Haitians would be executed in the morning. Chucha appeared at the narrator's grandfather's house to beg for taking in.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier What is Ishmael's grandmother like?

She is a kindly and concerned presence in Ishmael's life. Based on her worrying yet good-natured manner, we can most closely infer that Ishmael's grandmother is a kindly, concerned presence in Ishmael's life.

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents: Why is the family planning on leaving?

Spies are searching for the narrator's Papi. Spies appear and exit while Papi is hiding in a secret closet.

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents: How do the other maids feel about Chucha?

They think she is weird for her "witch crafts" and her racial history. They think they know better than she does.

lament (noun)

an expression of sorrow or grief

constant

occurring continuously

court

to engage in social activities leading to marriage

decree

to give an official order for something to be done

tacit

understood or agreed without being stated out loud; implicit

haste

urgency or speed

trigger

to put in motion or start; to cause a reaction

inert

unable to move

ominously

in a way that suggests something bad will happen

vigor

intensity of action or effect

Ghosts: What point of view is the story told in?

past; first-person

melancholy

sad, depressing, or gloomy

effrontery

shamelessness; arrogance

devotion

the state of being committed or loyal, such as to a cause or person

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea What caused Chang-bo to get into trouble with the Ministry for the Protection of State Security? Cite specific evidence from paragraphs 1-3 to support your response.

He made a bad comment about the rubber boot program in a shoe factory. He said: "Hah. If there are so many boots, how come my children never got any?" The neighbors reported him although he only meant that "I wasn't insulting anybody. I was simply saying that I haven't been able to buy those boots and I'd like to have some for my family."

defector

someone who leaves their home country to go to an opposing country

ineluctable

not capable of being avoided or prevented; inevitable

innocuous

not causing harm or offense

The Pose Which of the following lines from the text best explains the narrator's reaction to the people that come up to the window?

"Once again she wanted to laugh." The narrator finds herself holding back laughter as each passerby approaches the window.

Living to tell the tale: Which sentence most strongly contributes to the tone in the first paragraph? While the train stood there I had the sensation that we were not altogether alone. But when it pulled away, with an immediate, heart-wrenching blast of its whistle, my mother and I were left forsaken beneath the infernal sun, and all the heavy grief of the town came down on us. But we did not say anything to each other. The old wooden station with its tin roof and running balcony was like a tropical version of the ones we knew from westerns. We crossed the deserted station whose tiles were beginning to crack under the pressure of grass, and we sank into the torpor of siesta as we sought the protection of the almond trees.

But when it pulled away, with an immediate, heart-wrenching blast of its whistle, my mother and I were left forsaken beneath the infernal sun, and all the heavy grief of the town came down on us.

volume

a publication, such as a book, that is one of a set of several similar publications

indication

a sign of something

translucent

allowing light to pass through diffusely

regime

an authoritarian government

Living to tell the tale: The emotion the narrator mainly feels toward the thief is.....? Which statement from the excerpt most strongly supports the answer?

empathy The narrator is empathizing with the emotions he thinks the thief and his family must have felt. "'I feel as if I were the thief,' I said." In this quotation, the narrator directly states his empathy towards the thief.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier What is the tone of the excerpt given based on the events and the mental state of our narrator?

frightening, sad, horrible, tense

Living to tell the tale: What is most closely the meaning of calcinated as it is used in the following passage (paragraph 2)? Everything was identical to my memories, but smaller and poorer, and leveled by a windstorm of fatality: the decaying houses themselves, the tin roofs perforated by rust, the levee with its crumbling granite benches and melancholy almond trees, and all of it transfigured by the invisible burning dust that deceived the eye and calcinated the skin.

heated The context suggests that the "burning" dust would have heated the skin.

abate

to lessen or weaken

Living to tell the tale: How does our narrator feel about the town's siestas?

"Since I was a boy I had despised those inert siestas because we did not know what to do. 'Be quiet, we're sleeping,' the sleepers would murmur without waking." The word "despised" suggests how the narrator feels about siestas.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Why does the boys' trip to Mattru Jong come to an abrupt end?

The sudden, violent attack led to chaos and separation of families.

wharf

a flat structure alongside a body of water where ships dock

Ghosts: Based on the passage below (paragraph 18), Nyerere is most likely .......... We were not good friends, Ikenna and I; I knew him fairly well in those days only because everyone knew him fairly well. It was he who climbed the podium at the Staff Club, he who would speak until he was hoarse and sweating, he who handed out simplified tenets of Nyerere, the type smudgy on cheap paper. The social sciences people had too much time on their hands and worshiped radicals of all sorts who were thought by those of us in the sciences to be empty vessels.

a radical philosopher. The passage suggests that Nyerere is one of the "radicals" that social scientists worshiped.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier Which word best replaces translucent in the following passage (paragraph 1)? We arrived at Kabati, my grandmother's village, around two in the afternoon. Mamie Kpana was the name that my grandmother was known by. She was tall and her perfectly long face complemented her beautiful cheekbones and big brown eyes. She always stood with her hands either on her hips or on her head. By looking at her, I could see where my mother had gotten her beautiful dark skin, extremely white teeth, and the translucent creases on her neck. My grandfather or kamor —teacher, as everyone called him—was a well-known local Arabic scholar and healer in the village and beyond. A. opaque B. light-filled C. delicate D. clear

clear Ishmael's grandmother and mother both have clear, undarkened creases on their necks.

incessant

continuing without interruption; unending

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents: Why do the family members have nicknames?

Chucha can't pronounce any of their actual names. They adopted names without the letter "j" that Chucha could more easily pronounce.

Living to tell the tale: What point of view is the story told in? What is the tone of the excerpt given?

First person point of view The tone gives a sad, melancholic, and empathetic vibe in this excerpt.

Ghosts: Which of the following inferences about the narrator, Nwoye, is best supported by the story's first paragraph? Today I saw Ikenna Okoro, a man I had long thought was dead. Perhaps I should have bent down, grabbed a handful of sand, and thrown it at him, in the way my people do to make sure a person is not a ghost. But I am an educated man, a retired professor of seventy-one, and I am supposed to have armed myself with enough science to laugh indulgently at the ways of my people. I did not throw sand at him. I could not have done so even if I had wished to, anyway, since we met on the concrete grounds of the university bursary.

He believes that superstitions are seen as a sign of unintelligence. He believes, as an educated man, that the superstitions of his culture should be beneath him.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea What does the following excerpt most likely reveal about Chang-bo (Paragraph 12)? Chang-bo's job was to report business stories. He toured collective farms, shops, and factories with a notebook and tape recorder, interviewing the managers. Back in the newsroom, he would write his stories in fountain pen (there were no typewriters) about how well the economy was doing. He always put a positive spin on the facts, although he tried to keep them at least plausible.

He was not afraid to bend the truth in order to stay in the good graces of the North Korean government. He "always put a positive spin on the facts" in order to please North Korean authorities.

Ghosts: Which statement about Nwoye is best supported by the following passage (paragraph 77)? I do not go to church; I stopped going after Ebere first visited, because I was no longer uncertain. It is our diffidence about the afterdeath that leads us to religion. Answer choices for the above question

His dead wife's visits gave him the faith that most people seek at church. Nwoye stopped going to church after his wife's first visit because his faith had been confirmed.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea What central idea is best demonstrated in Chapter 3 with the story of Chang-bo's arrest?

Incidents like what happened to Chang-bo are a common occurrence in North Korea. The text details "how lucky" Chang-bo is because of the many other harsh punishments given to North Korean citizens who were disloyal.

The Pose Which of the following inferences is best supported by the passage below (paragraph 20)? She was still mulling over this when she spotted her girlfriend Sheyama on the sidewalk. Right away she sprang into her former pose and held her breath. Sheyama threw an inattentive look in her direction and because her thoughts were elsewhere, the danger, luckily, was averted. The thought that some of her acquaintances might spot her here had not occurred to her until Sheyama came along. This was precisely the time when her older brother returned from work, she recalled with horror. He's already suffering from a heart ailment. What if he saw the family's "honor" exposed so shamelessly out on the street? Wouldn't he drop dead? Answer choices for the above question

It would be very upsetting to the narrator's family if they knew what she was doing. The narrator panics when she sees her friend and immediately thinks of her brother.

Living to tell the tale: Which of the following inferences about Maria Consuegra is best supported by paragraph 7? Which sentence from paragraph 7 most strongly supports the answer to this question? The town dignitaries came to Maria Consuegra's house to offer her their condolences for having killed the thief. I went that night with Papalelo, and we found her sitting in an armchair from Manila that looked like an enormous wicker peacock, surrounded by the fervor of her friends who listened to the story she had repeated a thousand times. Everyone agreed with her that she had fired out of sheer fright. It was then that my grandfather asked her if she had heard anything after the shot, and she answered that the first she had heard a great silence, then the metallic sound of the picklock falling on the cement, and then a faint, anguished voice: "Mother, help me!" Maria Consuegra, it seemed, had not been conscious of this heart-breaking lament until my grandfather asked her the question. Only then did she burst into tears.

Maria is stunned for a long time after she shoots the intruder. In this passage, Maria seems stunned after shooting the thief. Sentence: "Maria Consuegra, it seemed, had not been conscious of this heart-breaking lament until my grandfather asked her the question."

Ghosts: Which of the following best summarizes Nwoye's attitude in the passage below (paragraph 70)? Which sentence from the passage most strongly supports the answer? I was taken aback for a moment because it had been so long since I thought of Josephat as he was in those days, by far the best ballroom dancer we had on campus. "Yes, yes, he was," I said, and I felt a strange gratitude that Ikenna's memories were frozen at a time when I still thought Josephat to be a man of integrity. "Josephat was vice chancellor for six years and ran this place like his father's chicken coop. Money disappeared and then we would see new cars stamped with the names of foreign foundations that did not exist. Some people went to court, but nothing came of that. He dictated who would be promoted and who would be stagnated. In short, the man acted like a solo University Council. This present vice chancellor is following him faithfully. I have not been paid my pension since I retired, you know."

Nwoye has not thought of Josephat with anything but contempt in a long time, and is surprised to remember him from long before. Nwoye is surprised to find himself thinking of a time so long ago. Sentence: "I felt a strange gratitude that Ikenna's memories were frozen at a time when I still thought Josephat to be a man of integrity." Nwoye is surprised to remember a time when he didn't believe Josephat to be corrupt.

Ghosts: Which inference is best supported by the following passage (paragraph 58)? Which line from the text best supports the correct answer? I often want to tell Nkiru that her mother visits weekly in the Harmattan and less often during the rainy season, but she will finally have reason to come here and bundle me back with her to America and I will be forced to live a life cushioned by so much convenience that it is sterile. A life littered with what we call "opportunities." A life that is not for me. I wonder what would have happened if we had won the war. Perhaps we would not be looking overseas for those opportunities, and I would not need to worry about our grandson who does not speak Igbo, who, the last time he visited, did not understand why he was expected to say "good afternoon" to strangers, because in his world one has to justify simple courtesies. But who can tell? Perhaps nothing would have changed even if we had won.

Nwoye maintains a calm, philosophical attitude about the fallout of the civil war in Nigeria. Rather than falling into despair, Nwoye tries to keep a reassuring sense of perspective. Sentence: "Perhaps nothing would have changed even if we had won." This line suggests that Nwoye tries to be calm and philosophical.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea Which of the following inferences about Mrs. Song is best supported by the text?

She is completely loyal to the North Korean government. Mrs. Song is painted as faithful to the North Korean regime.

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents: What is Chucha's consistently somber mood?

She suffers from trauma rooted in a national incident of racial violence. The massacre of black Haitians in Chucha's younger years is cited as the reason for her somberness.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea Which of the following inferences is best supported by the last paragraph of the text (Paragraph 17)? Oak-hee eavesdropped on her father and his friend. She nodded quietly in agreement. When her father noticed, he at first tried to shoo her away. Eventually he gave up. Swearing her to secrecy, he took her into his confidence. He told her that Kim Il-sung was not the anti-Japanese resistance fighter he claimed to be so much as a puppet of the Soviet Union. He told her that South Korea was now among the richest countries in Asia; even ordinary working people owned their own cars. Communism, he reported, was proving a failure as an economic system. China and the Soviet Union were now embracing capitalism. Father and daughter would talk for hours, always taking care to keep their voices at a whisper in case a neighbor was snooping around. And, at such times, they always made sure that Mrs. Song, the true believer, was not at home.

The North Korean economy is struggling in comparison to South Korea. Chang-bo tells his daughter the truth about the prosperity of South Korea.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea How does the inclusion of "thin plaster walls" add to the development of the following passage (Paragraph 14)? "What a bunch of liars!" Chang-bo would say in an emphatic tone, taking care just the same not to speak loudly enough for the sound to carry through the thin plaster walls between the apartments.

The description helps convey that Chang-bo's neighbors could be listening in and report him. It is referring back to the neighbor who "blabbed" and got Chang-bo arrested.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier How is Ishmael different at the conclusion of the excerpt? What does he see or experience that causes this change?

The experience conveys Ishmael's great shock and his difficulty processing the terrible news. This passage describes Ishmael's difficulty processing the terrible news that his hometown has been attacked and conveys a sense of the shock of that day—the birds were chirping, the sun was shining, and yet Ishmael's whole life had likely been changed forever.

Living to tell the tale: What does the following passage mainly reveal about the narrator (paragraph 2)? "There was not a single door, crack in the wall, a human trace that did not find a supernatural resonance in me."

The narrator associates memories to specific objects that he sees. Everything the narrator encounters has a "resonance" within him.

The Pose What is most closely the central idea of the passage below (paragraph 15)? She was still congratulating herself on her firm resolve when she caught sight of a cop who had just separated from the crowd and after taking a pinch of chewing tobacco from a box he held was rubbing it with his thumb. The moment he saw her, his hand stopped dead, his mouth fell open, and his eyes widened. She stared at the cop sweetly. The cop's eyelashes began to flap frantically; he rubbed the tobacco hastily and stuffing it between his lower lip and teeth practically stuck his eyes against the glass of the show window.

The narrator looks so beautiful it alarms the cop. The narrator makes the cop stop and stare.

The Pose: Which of these inferences about the narrator is best supported by the passage below (paragraph 3)? Why did she do it? She probably didn't know that herself. True, she was something of a daredevil in her childhood. But now she was a grown young woman, a college student, smart, sophisticated, urbane. Even the most daring boys at the college got cold feet walking with her. What she'd just done, well, it just happened. It was entirely unpremeditated.

The narrator, while generally a risk-taker by nature, just found herself in that window. The narrator recalls being "a daredevil in her childhood" and states "what she'd done, well, it just happened.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea What is Chang-bo's reaction when he saw the program about the shoe factory?

The program has likely been carefully edited and scripted to show off the shoe factory in the best possible way. The story sounds similar to the business ones Chang-bo covers where his job is to "always put a positive spin on the facts."

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier What best describes why Ishmael and his friends decide to return to their war-torn village?

They want to reunite with their families.

Living to tell the tale: What is most likely the author's intent in the following passage (paragraph 4)? When we turned the corner, the dust burned my feet through the weave of my sandals. The feeling of being forsaken became unbearable. Then I saw myself and I saw my mother, just as I saw, when I was a boy, the mother and sister of the thief whom Maria Consuegra had killed with a single shot one week earlier, when he tried to break into her house. Answer choices for the above question

To show the narrator making the connection that he and his mother are abandoned like the thief's family. The narrator is comparing himself and his mother to the mother and sister of a murdered thief.

trepidation

fear or anxiety concerning something about to happen