1 How is the old woman in Morrison's fable treated by her own people? She is visited everyday. She is mocked. 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 evict her from her house. To play a trick and disprove her wisdom. 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 deafness The old woman's blindness The old woman's isolation 4 What do the young people ask the old woman to do? Move to the city. Help them with their love life. Tell them if the bird they hold in their hands is alive or dead Tell them stories. 5 What does the old woman tell the children in response? The bird is alive. To go back to the city. 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? It is the children's responsibility. It is the old woman's bird. The old woman loves the children. The old woman is not actually blind. 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. Assertions of power. The power of language. 8 What metaphor does Morrison use to analyze the conversation between the children and the old woman? The bird is prejudice and the old woman is hope. 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. 9 What is closest to the old woman's idea of dead language? The engraving on a tomb. Generative and powerful. Unyielding and limiting. An extinct dialect. 10 What is an example of oppressive language, according to the old woman and Morrison? Racist language Extinct language. Rural dialect. Ageist language. 11 What is the conventional wisdom of the Tower of Babel story, according to the old woman? The collapse was a misfortune The collapse was an accident. The Babylonians achieved their purpose. The workers built Heaven on earth. 12 What is the best description of the relationship between language and experience, according to the old woman? Language is irrelevant to experience. Experience gestures towards language but cannot substitute for it. Language can replace experience with words. Language gestures towards experience but cannot substitute for it. 13 What is the measure of our lives, according to Morrison? Love. Building the Tower of Babel. Doing language. Dying. 14 What is one reason the children are angry with the old woman? 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. For being confident of her wisdom. 15 What do the children actually want from the old woman? For her to move to the city. For her to step down from her pedestal. Her stories. 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. The city they come from. A cotton field. A slave wagon on a cold, snowy night in America. 17 What happens to the wagon of slaves in the children's story? It is stolen by runaway slaves. It ends up at the auction block. It is sent back to the ship. It stops outside the inn. 18 Who comes out of the inn, in the children's story? A plantation owner. A young boy and girl. A runaway slave. The wagon driver. 19 What do the boy and girl from the inn do? They drive the wagon away from the inn. They tell the slaves a story. They give the slaves in the wagon food and drink. They free the slaves. 20 What does the young girl do as she passes out food? She asks them their name. She looks into the eyes of each slave. She asks them for a story. She offers them more. 21 How does the old woman respond to the children's monologue? She asks them why they have come. She says she finally trusts them. She asks them to leave. She tells them a story of her own. 22 Why does the woman say she trusts the children now? Because she says they have caught the bird. 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. 23 What might the old woman's last comment be referring to? The preservation of the life of the bird. 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 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 love. Through narrative. Through food. 25 What year was Toni Morrison awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature? 2019 1993 1973 1997