Unit Test Review
Read the passage from "By the Waters of Babylon." Nevertheless, it was strange. There was a washing-place but no water—perhaps the gods washed in air. There was a cooking-place but no wood, and though there was a machine to cook food, there was no place to put fire in it. Nor were there candles or lamps—there were things that looked like lamps but they had neither oil nor wick. All these things were magic, but I touched them and lived—the magic had gone out of them. Let me tell one thing to show. In the washing-place, a thing said "Hot" but it was not hot to the touch—another thing said "Cold" but it was not cold. This must have been a strong magic but the magic was gone. I do not understand—they had ways—I wish that I knew. Which conflict does the narrator face in this passage?
character vs. self, because he is struggling to understand how the gods lived
In an interpretive literary essay, what is the purpose of commentary in body paragraphs?
Commentary explains how evidence supports the writer's viewpoints.
What are the characteristics of a theme in literature? Select two options.
Theme is established through the conflicts and their resolution. Theme is conveyed as a message about a topic related to the plot.
Which motivators are examples of extrinsic motivation? Select three options.
receiving good grades paying discount prices getting a reward
Read the passage from "By the Waters of Babylon." It was close and dry and dusty in the house of the gods. I have said the magic was gone but that is not true—it had gone from the magic things but it had not gone from the place. I felt the spirits about me, weighing upon me. Nor had I ever slept in a Dead Place before—and yet, tonight, I must sleep there. When I thought of it, my tongue felt dry in my throat, in spite of my wish for knowledge. Almost I would have gone down again and faced the dogs, but I did not. Which text evidence from the passage supports the theme that even nonliving things contain a life force? Select two options.
"I have said the magic was gone but that is not true—it had gone from the magic things but it had not gone from the place." "I felt the spirits about me, weighing upon me."
Read the sentence from an interpretive literary analysis. Amy Tan describes Jing-mei's mother's efforts to get her to become a prodigy: "I soon found out why Old Chong had retired from teaching piano. He was deaf." Which revision of this sentence most accurately uses a literary term?
Amy Tan points out the irony in Jing-mei's mother's efforts to get her to become a prodigy: "I soon found out why Old Chong had retired from teaching piano. He was deaf."
Read the passage from "By the Waters of Babylon." How shall I tell what I saw? There was no smell of man left, on stone or metal. Nor were there many trees in that wilderness of stone. There are many pigeons, nesting and dropping in the towers—the gods must have loved them, or, perhaps, they used them for sacrifices. There are wild cats that roam the god-roads, green-eyed, unafraid of man. At night they wail like demons but they are not demons. The wild dogs are more dangerous, for they hunt in a pack, but them I did not meet till later. Everywhere there are the carved stones, carved with magical numbers or words. Which textual evidence indicates that John's journey into the Place of the Gods will continue?
"but them I did not meet till later"
Read the passage from "By the Waters of Babylon." I told and he listened. After that, I wished to tell all the people but he showed me otherwise. He said, "Truth is a hard deer to hunt. If you eat too much truth at once, you may die of the truth. It was not idly that our fathers forbade the Dead Places." He was right—it is better the truth should come little by little. I have learned that, being a priest. Perhaps, in the old days, they ate knowledge too fast. Which theme is best reflected in the resolution of this excerpt?
Facing the truth is not an easy task.
Which excerpts from "Two Kinds" show a connection between conflict and culture? Select two options.
"'Why don't you like me the way I am? I'm not a genius! I can't play the piano. And even if I could, I wouldn't go on TV if you paid me a million dollars!' I cried." "My mother slapped me. 'Who ask you be genius?' she shouted. 'Only ask you be your best. For you sake. You think I want you to be genius? Hnnh! What for! Who ask you!'"
Read the passage from "Marriage Is a Private Affair" by Chinua Achebe. "I shall not call in a native doctor." Nnaemeka's father was known to be obstinately ahead of his more superstitious neighbours in these matters. "I will not be another Mrs. Ochuba. If my son wants to kill himself let him do it with his own hands. It is not for me to help him." "But it was her fault," said Madubogwu. "She ought to have gone to an honest herbalist. She was a clever woman, nevertheless." "She was a wicked murderess," said Jonathan who rarely argued with his neighbours because, he often said, they were incapable of reasoning. "The medicine was prepared for her husband, it was his name they called in its preparation and I am sure it would have been perfectly beneficial to him. It was wicked to put it into the herbalist's food, and say you were only trying it out." What are the benefits of analyzing this passage from more than one perspective? Select two options.
Analyzing the passage from a feminist perspective would likely provide insights on how a woman like Mrs. Ochuba would be treated in the Ibo culture of that time. Analyzing the passage from a historical perspective would likely provide insights on how Ibo people of the time viewed native medicine.
Read the passage from "By the Waters of Babylon." My father is a priest; I am the son of a priest. I have been in the Dead Places near us, with my father—at first, I was afraid. When my father went into the house to search for the metal, I stood by the door and my heart felt small and weak. It was a dead man's house, a spirit house. It did not have the smell of man, though there were old bones in a corner. But it is not fitting that a priest's son should show fear. I looked at the bones in the shadow and kept my voice still. What does the narrator's response to the setting reveal about his character?
In describing his past, he shows that he will live up to his father's expectations.
Read the poem "Sonnet in Primary Colors" by Rita Dove. This is for the woman with one black wing perched over her eyes: lovely Frida, erect among parrots, in the stern petticoats of the peasant, who painted herself a present— wildflowers entwining the plaster corset her spine resides in, that flaming pillar— this priestess in the romance of mirrors. Each night she lay down in pain and rose to the celluloid butterflies of her Beloved Dead, Lenin and Marx and Stalin arrayed at the footstead. And rose to her easel, the hundred dogs panting like children along the graveled walks of the garden, Diego's love a skull in the circular window of the thumbprint searing her immutable brow. How does this poem resemble an Elizabethan sonnet?
It contains exactly 14 lines.
Read the passage from "Marriage Is a Private Affair" by Chinua Achebe. In this passage, Nnaemeka speaks first, and Nene speaks second. "Yes. They are most unhappy if the engagement is not arranged by them. In our case it's worse—you are not even an Ibo." This was said so seriously and so bluntly that Nene could not find speech immediately. In the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the city it had always seemed to her something of a joke that a person's tribe could determine whom he married. At last she said, "You don't really mean that he will object to your marrying me simply on that account? I had always thought you Ibos were kindly disposed to other people." "So we are. But when it comes to marriage, well, it's not quite so simple. And this," he added, "is not peculiar to the Ibos. If your father were alive and lived in the heart of Ibibio-land he would be exactly like my father." "I don't know. But anyway, as your father is so fond of you, I'm sure he will forgive you soon enough. Come on then, be a good boy and send him a nice lovely letter . . ." "It would not be wise to break the news to him by writing. A letter will bring it upon him with a shock. I'm quite sure about that." Which statement correctly analyzes this passage in terms of its historical context?
Nene is surprised how different her values are from people who live far from a city.
Read the passage from "Two Kinds." She walked over and stood in front of the TV. I saw her chest was heaving up and down in an angry way. "No!" I said, and I now felt stronger, as if my true self had finally emerged. So this was what had been inside me all along. "No! I won't!" I screamed. She yanked me by the arm, pulled me off the floor, snapped off the TV. She was frighteningly strong, half pulling, half carrying me toward the piano as I kicked the throw rugs under my feet. She lifted me up and onto the hard bench. I was sobbing by now, looking at her bitterly. Her chest was heaving even more and her mouth was open, smiling crazily as if she were pleased I was crying. "You want me to be something that I'm not!" I sobbed. "I'll never be the kind of daughter you want me to be!" "Only two kinds of daughters," she shouted in Chinese. "Those who are obedient and those who follow their own mind! Only one kind of daughter can live in this house. Obedient daughter!" Which statement best explains the motivation for the actions of the narrator's mother?
She is intrinsically motivated by her belief that children should obey their parents.
Read the passage from "Marriage Is a Private Affair" by Chinua Achebe. "I shall never see her," was the reply. From that night the father scarcely spoke to his son. He did not, however, cease hoping that he would realize how serious was the danger he was heading for. Day and night he put him in his prayers. Nnaemeka, for his own part, was very deeply affected by his father's grief. But he kept hoping that it would pass away. If it had occurred to him that never in the history of his people had a man married a woman who spoke a different tongue, he might have been less optimistic. "It has never been heard," was the verdict of an old man speaking a few weeks later. In that short sentence he spoke for all of his people. This man had come with others to commiserate with Okeke when news went round about his son's behaviour. By that time the son had gone back to Lagos. "It has never been heard," said the old man again with a sad shake of his head. "What did Our Lord say?" asked another gentleman. "Sons shall rise against their fathers; it is there in the Holy Book." "It is the beginning of the end," said another. How does this passage reinforce the traditional social hierarchy?
The older men in the village commiserate with Okeke regarding Nnaemeka's decision to disobey him.
