1 How is the old woman in Morrison's fable treated by her own people? She is considered an outcast. She is visited everyday. She is mocked. She is revered and honored. 2 Why do the young people come from the city to visit the old woman? To listen to her stories. To evict her from her house. To play a trick and disprove her wisdom. To pay her their respects. 3 When the young people arrive at the old woman's house, what does their trick depend on? The old woman's blindness The old woman's isolation The old woman's deafness The old woman's poverty 4 What do the young people ask the old woman to do? Tell them if the bird they hold in their hands is alive or dead Tell them stories. Help them with their love life. Move to the city. 5 What does the old woman tell the children in response? To go back to the city. The bird is alive. She doesn't know if the bird is alive or dead, but she does know the bird is in their hands. The bird is dead. 6 What does Morrison say the old woman's response means? The old woman is not actually blind. It is the children's responsibility. The old woman loves the children. It is the old woman's bird. 7 What does Morrison say the old woman is calling attention to in her response? The mechanism through which power is exercised. The old woman's power herself. The power of language. Assertions of power. 8 What metaphor does Morrison use to analyze the conversation between the children and the old woman? The bird is a writer and the old woman is language. The bird is language and the old woman is a practiced writer. The bird is language and the children are practiced writers. The bird is prejudice and the old woman is hope. 9 What is closest to the old woman's idea of dead language? Unyielding and limiting. The engraving on a tomb. Generative and powerful. An extinct dialect. 10 What is an example of oppressive language, according to the old woman and Morrison? Extinct language. Ageist language. Rural dialect. Racist language 11 What is the conventional wisdom of the Tower of Babel story, according to the old woman? The collapse was an accident. The Babylonians achieved their purpose. The workers built Heaven on earth. The collapse was a misfortune 12 What is the best description of the relationship between language and experience, according to the old woman? Language can replace experience with words. Language gestures towards experience but cannot substitute for it. Experience gestures towards language but cannot substitute for it. Language is irrelevant to experience. 13 What is the measure of our lives, according to Morrison? Love. Doing language. Building the Tower of Babel. Dying. 14 What is one reason the children are angry with the old woman? For failing to engage with the possibility that they had no bird in their hands. For making fun of them. For being confident of her wisdom. For not admitting her weakness to them. 15 What do the children actually want from the old woman? Her stories. For her to move to the city. For her to step down from her pedestal. For her to revive the dead bird. 16 What is the setting of the story the children tell the old woman? The steerage cabin of a ship crossing the Atlantic. A slave wagon on a cold, snowy night in America. A cotton field. The city they come from. 17 What happens to the wagon of slaves in the children's story? It ends up at the auction block. It stops outside the inn. It is sent back to the ship. It is stolen by runaway slaves. 18 Who comes out of the inn, in the children's story? A plantation owner. A runaway slave. The wagon driver. A young boy and girl. 19 What do the boy and girl from the inn do? They give the slaves in the wagon food and drink. They drive the wagon away from the inn. They tell the slaves a story. They free the slaves. 20 What does the young girl do as she passes out food? She asks them their name. She asks them for a story. She looks into the eyes of each slave. She offers them more. 21 How does the old woman respond to the children's monologue? She asks them why they have come. She tells them a story of her own. She says she finally trusts them. She asks them to leave. 22 Why does the woman say she trusts the children now? Because she knows they are just children. Because she knows they were playing a joke on her. Because the bird in their hands flew away. Because she says they have caught the bird. 23 What might the old woman's last comment be referring to? The meal that the old woman and the children ate together. The preservation of the life of the bird. The stories and use of language that the old woman and the children have shared. The telling of her history. 24 In the prelude to Toni Morrison's lecture, what does she say is the principle way that humans digest information? Through friendship with animals and birds. Through narrative. Through love. Through food. 25 What year was Toni Morrison awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature? 1973 1993 2019 1997
