The Nobel Lecture in Literature Quizzes

The Nobel Lecture in Literature Quiz

1 How is the old woman in Morrison's fable treated by her own people?
She is mocked.

She is visited everyday.

She is revered and honored.

She is considered an outcast.
2 Why do the young people come from the city to visit the old woman?
To play a trick and disprove her wisdom.

To evict her from her house.

To pay her their respects.

To listen to her stories.
3 When the young people arrive at the old woman's house, what does their trick depend on?
The old woman's poverty

The old woman's blindness

The old woman's deafness

The old woman's isolation
4 What do the young people ask the old woman to do?
Help them with their love life.

Tell them if the bird they hold in their hands is alive or dead

Tell them stories.

Move to the city.
5 What does the old woman tell the children in response?
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.

To go back to the city.

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?
Assertions of power.

The old woman's power herself.

The power of language.

The mechanism through which power is exercised.
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 children are practiced writers.

The bird is language and the old woman is a practiced writer.

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.

Generative and powerful.

An extinct dialect.

The engraving on a tomb.
10 What is an example of oppressive language, according to the old woman and Morrison?
Extinct language.

Rural dialect.

Ageist language.

Racist language
11 What is the conventional wisdom of the Tower of Babel story, according to the old woman?
The workers built Heaven on earth.

The Babylonians achieved their purpose.

The collapse was an accident.

The collapse was a misfortune
12 What is the best description of the relationship between language and experience, according to the old woman?
Language gestures towards experience but cannot substitute for it.

Language is irrelevant to experience.

Experience gestures towards language but cannot substitute for it.

Language can replace experience with words.
13 What is the measure of our lives, according to Morrison?
Doing language.

Building the Tower of Babel.

Dying.

Love.
14 What is one reason the children are angry with the old woman?
For being confident of her wisdom.

For making fun of them.

For failing to engage with the possibility that they had no bird in their hands.

For not admitting her weakness to them.
15 What do the children actually want from the old woman?
For her to move to the city.

Her stories.

For her to revive the dead bird.

For her to step down from her pedestal.
16 What is the setting of the story the children tell the old woman?
A slave wagon on a cold, snowy night in America.

The city they come from.

A cotton field.

The steerage cabin of a ship crossing the Atlantic.
17 What happens to the wagon of slaves in the children's story?
It stops outside the inn.

It ends up at the auction block.

It is stolen by runaway slaves.

It is sent back to the ship.
18 Who comes out of the inn, in the children's story?
A young boy and girl.

A runaway slave.

The wagon driver.

A plantation owner.
19 What do the boy and girl from the inn do?
They tell the slaves a story.

They free the slaves.

They drive the wagon away from the inn.

They give the slaves in the wagon food and drink.
20 What does the young girl do as she passes out food?
She asks them for a story.

She asks them their name.

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 tells them a story of her own.

She asks them to leave.

She asks them why they have come.

She says she finally trusts them.
22 Why does the woman say she trusts the children now?
Because she knows they are just children.

Because the bird in their hands flew away.

Because she knows they were playing a joke on her.

Because she says they have caught the bird.
23 What might the old woman's last comment be referring to?
The telling of her history.

The meal that the old woman and the children ate together.

The stories and use of language that the old woman and the children have shared.

The preservation of the life of the bird.
24 In the prelude to Toni Morrison's lecture, what does she say is the principle way that humans digest information?
Through narrative.

Through food.

Through love.

Through friendship with animals and birds.
25 What year was Toni Morrison awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature?
1973

2019

1993

1997

Study Guide for The Nobel Lecture in Literature

The Nobel Lecture In Literature study guide contains a biography of Toni Morrison, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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The Nobel Lecture in Literature

by Toni Morrison

The Nobel Lecture in Literature Quiz

The Nobel Lecture in Literature Questions and Answers

Study Guide for The Nobel Lecture in Literature

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