"Unusual Normality," Author's Purpose, Active/ Passive U1L2

1. What is the author’s point of view about sharing his background?

• He believes that sometimes it’s fun to pretend to be a different person.

• He believes that a person should be careful not to share anything with people

• He believes that in order to live the life he wants, he needs to hide certain things from others.

• He believes that in order to live the life he wants, he should share his background with everyone.

What belief of the author’s does paragraph 74 reveal?

• . that he can forget his past by learning to play paintball

• that he can convince the others to overlook his background by praising them

• that he can seem like a regular teenager by pretending not to understand war.

• that he can make lasting friendships by learning paintball from the other teenagers

What do paragraphs 91-92 reveal about the author’s opinion of remaining silent?

• It gives him the opportunity to have a normal childhood.

• It gives him the opportunity to learn if a person is safe or unsafe.

• It gives him an opportunity to process the shame he feels about being a child soldier.

• It gives him an opportunity to watch other teenagers and learn how to be an American teenager.

2. Which of the following quotations from the text best reveals the author’s reason for staying silent about his life in Africa?

• “to live with a mother who was willing to take me into her life when most people at the time were afraid of somebody like me” (Paragraph 8)

• “Thus began my two years of high school and making other teenagers confused about who I was.” (Paragraph 21)

• The reason I spoke like this was because of my British-African English that I’d learned, which was the only formal English that I knew.” (Paragraph 28)

• “I wanted to explain certain things, but I felt that if they knew about my background, they would no longer allow me to be a child.” (Paragraph 91)

Ishmael Beah is from where?

• Asia

• Ivory Coast

• Sierra Leone

• Nigeria

Where do Ishmael and his adoptive mother live?

• Chicago

• New York City

• Los Angeles

• Miami

Why did Ishmael have trouble finding a school to attend once he was in the United States?

• He could not pass the entrance exams.

• He did not speak American English.

• He could not afford the tuition.

• He did not have a report card from his previous school.

What did Ishmael's friends believe was the reason that he spoke such formal British English?

• He used to go to school in Great Britain.

• He is from a royal African family.

• He had spent many years in elite schools in his home country.

• He had performed in Shakespearean plays.

Which TWO reasons does Ishmael give for why his American friends are lucky? Check TWO answers.

• They have a family that cares and worries about them.

• They have a lot of money.

• They live in large houses.

• They have a naive innocence that he does not have.

• They go to a good school like he does.

Ishmael's friends call him weird. Which word does he prefer?

• strange

• bizarre

• unusual

• whacky