Things Fall Apart, Chapter 3 quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. According to the priestess of Agbala, how do Unoka's neighbours farm differently from him?

   • They sell their yams in distant markets where prices are higher
   • Correct answer: They clear virgin forests while he sows on exhausted, easy farms
   • They offer twice as many cocks to Ani before each planting
   • They wait for the Oracle to announce the first rains

   The priestess says his neighbours cut down virgin forests and cross seven rivers to farm, while Unoka sows on exhausted land that takes no labour to clear.

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2. 2

   Question 2. How does each of Nwakibie's wives drink from his horn?

   • She pours a few drops on the floor for the ancestors before she sips
   • She drinks standing beside the eldest guest, then passes it to him
   • Correct answer: She goes down on one knee, drinks a little and hands back the horn
   • She takes the horn back to her hut and returns it empty later on

   Anasi kneels on one knee, drinks a little and returns the horn, and the other wives follow in their proper order.

   Read the passage
3. 3

   Question 3. Why does everyone agree that Igwelo should drink the dregs of the palm-wine?

   • Correct answer: He married his first wife recently, and the dregs were thought good for new husbands
   • He is the youngest man present and so must finish whatever the elders leave behind
   • He poured the wine that evening, so custom says he must finish the last horn himself
   • He lost a wager to Idigo earlier that day and must pay by drinking the thick dregs

   Igwelo has 'a job in hand' because he married a month or two earlier; the thick dregs were supposed to be good for men going in to their wives.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What rumour does Akukalia repeat about why Obiako gave up tapping palm-wine?

   • A rival tapper had cursed his trees with bad medicine
   • His father's spirit had forbidden him to climb trees again
   • He had become too wealthy to bother climbing palm trees
   • Correct answer: The Oracle had warned that he would fall from a palm tree and die

   Akukalia says some people believe the Oracle warned Obiako he would fall off a palm tree and kill himself.

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5. 5

   Question 5. How does Okonkwo try to save his young yams during the drought?

   • He hauls water from the stream to each yam heap at dawn
   • Correct answer: He surrounds them with rings of thick sisal leaves and changes them daily
   • He digs the seed yams up and replants them in the shade
   • He offers a goat at the shrine of Ifejioku for rain

   He makes rings of thick sisal leaves to protect the tendrils from the smouldering earth, changing them every day, but the yams still die.

   Read the passage
6. 6

   Question 6. What consolation does Okonkwo have after the drought kills his first planting?

   • Nwakibie promises to replace the lost seeds the following year without charge
   • The elders excuse all share-croppers from paying their share that season
   • Correct answer: The seeds he lost were his own, so the loaned yams are all still untouched
   • His mother's coco-yams survive and will feed the household until next year

   The four hundred seeds he sowed before the drought came from his own previous harvest, so he still has Nwakibie's eight hundred and his father's friend's four hundred.

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7. 7

   Question 7. Why has Nwakibie refused seed yams to many other young men?

   • Correct answer: He expected them to dump the yams and let weeds choke them
   • He had promised every spare yam to his own grown-up sons that year
   • The Oracle had told him not to lend seed during a year of bad omens
   • They came to him without the palm-wine and kola that custom required

   Nwakibie says he refused them because he knew they would dump the yams in the earth and leave them to be choked by weeds; he trusts Okonkwo on sight.

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8. 8

   Question 8. Which of these events from Unoka's story actually occur in Chapter 3?

   • Unoka tells the priestess that he sacrifices a cock to Ani before he plants.

     Happened

   • The priestess orders Unoka to sacrifice a goat to his dead father.

     Didn't happen

   • Unoka is buried beside his compound with his flute in his hands.

     Didn't happen

   • Unoka is carried to the Evil Forest after he falls ill with the swelling.

     Happened

   Read the passage
9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these events of Okonkwo's terrible year actually occur in Chapter 3?

   • The first rains come late and last only a brief moment.

     Happened

   • Okonkwo returns his seed yams to Nwakibie when the drought begins.

     Didn't happen

   • The usual spell of sunshine in the middle of the wet season never comes.

     Happened

   • The elders call a meeting to share out the yams that survived.

     Didn't happen

   Read the passage
10. 10

    Question 10. What does 'abomination' mean as used in: 'He died of the swelling which was an abomination to the earth goddess'?

    • A gift offered in thanks for a good harvest
    • A sickness that spreads quickly through a village
    • Correct answer: Something hated as a violation of what is sacred
    • A secret known only to the priestess of a god

    An abomination is something regarded with horror as an offence against the sacred, which is why the sick man could not be buried in the earth.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does 'meagre' mean as used in: 'he had to support his mother and two sisters from his meagre harvest'?

    • Carefully stored
    • Correct answer: Scanty or small
    • Shared out evenly among relatives
    • Gathered early in the season

    Meagre means lacking in quantity; as a share-cropper Okonkwo kept only a third of what he grew, so there was little to go round.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does 'luxuriant' mean as used in: 'The yams put on luxuriant green leaves'?

    • Pale and sickly
    • Correct answer: Growing richly and in abundance
    • Withered and scorched by sunlight
    • Small and slow to appear

    Luxuriant means rich, abundant growth; the irony is that the leaves flourished while the tubers below, without sunshine, would not grow.

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