21
QuizMultiple Choice

"By the Waters of Babylon," Part 2: Analyzing Theme — Unit test

Question 21 • RS AZ-English Language Arts 10 B

Read the passage from "Marriage Is a Private Affair” by Chinua Achebe."Have you written to your dad yet?” asked Nene one afternoon as she sat with Nnaemeka in her room at 16 Kasanga Street, Lagos."No. I’ve been thinking about it. I think it’s better to tell him when I get home on leave!”"But why? Your leave is such a long way off yet—six whole weeks. He should be let into our happiness now.”Nnaemeka was silent for a while, and then began very slowly as if he groped for his words: "I wish I were sure it would be happiness to him.”"Of course it must,” replied Nene, a little surprised. "Why shouldn’t it?”"You have lived in Lagos all your life, and you know very little about people in remote parts of the country.”"That’s what you always say. But I don’t believe anybody will be so unlike other people that they will be unhappy when their sons are engaged to marry.”"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.

Answer
A
People from different tribes do not marry one another.
B
This does not describe the patriarchal system.
C
Fathers in small villages arrange marriages for their children.
D
Fathers are unhappy when their children become engaged to be married.

Explanation

Nnaemeka explains that his father expects to arrange his marriage, and that his father would be unhappy because Nene is not Ibo. This supports the idea that fathers in his community arrange marriages for their children. Choice D is too broad: the passage says fathers may be unhappy when an engagement is not arranged by them, not simply because their children are engaged.

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