Quiz 2 Unusual Normality and Author's Purpose

Who is the most likely intended audience for the essay, Unusual Normality?

• Foster parents of war orphans

• Fellow Sierra Leonean child soldiers

• Americans or Westerners in general

Read these sentences from paragraph 9.

"It was a chance at living again, because all I had come to know, since I was eleven, was how to survive. I didn’t know how to live."

The tone of these sentences emphasizes that the author—

• was forced to become a soldier as a child

• was able to take advantage of certain stereotypes

• was forced to grow up quickly in Sierra Leone

What is the best inference that can be made about the author’s message in paragraph 17?

"I would sit there thinking to myself, What do these school principals think? Do they really think that when there’s a war in your village or when your town is attacked, and people are gunned down in front of you, and you’re running for your life, you’re thinking to yourself, “You know, I must take my report card and put it in the back of my pocket.”

• Significant cultural differences exist between Sierra Leone and the United States.

• Americans have difficulty comprehending the horrors endured in war-torn places like Sierra Leone.

• War inflicts emotional scars that time may be slow to heal.

Words and phrases such as humongous or weirded out help establish the author’s personality, or —

• tone

• voice

• purpose

What tone or attitude is suggested in the quoted text in paragraph 26 and the explanation that follows?

"No, no, no. I’m not weird. Weird has a negative connotation. I prefer the word unusual. It has a certain sophistication and gravitas to it that suits my character.”

• Confusion

• Persistence

• Confidence

What word best describes the connotation of weird in paragraph 26?

"No, no, no. I’m not weird. Weird has a negative connotation (a feeling or idea that is suggested by a particular word). I prefer the word unusual. It has a certain sophistication and gravitas to it that suits my character.”

• Irregular

• Peculiar

• Remarkable

What is the connotation of macho in paragraph 60?

"They were very macho about it."

• Aggressive

• Powerful

• Boastful

Arrange the items in the order in which they appear in the text. The flow of events should be from the beginning until the end.

• School officials cannot relate to the trials of Beah, a former child soldier.

• Beah describes his childhood in Sierra Leone.

• Beah learns that the bravado of young Americans is false.

• Having been at actual war for his life, Beah excels at paintball.

The author’s traumatic past shaped his response to his new environment. In which two of Ishmael Beah’s experiences in New York does he carry himself like a soldier? (Choose two answers.)

• When strangers walk by

• On a weekend trip upstate

• In his meetings with school principals

The author strikes a tone that almost suggests a spy or a person describing the thoughts behind all the things he must not say.

Choose two answers that explain briefly how the text creates this “spylike” tone.

• In the airport upon arrival

• When strangers walk by

• On a weekend trip upstate