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 considered an outcast.

She is revered and honored.

She is visited everyday.
2 Why do the young people come from the city to visit the old woman?

To play a trick and disprove her wisdom.

To pay her their respects.

To listen to her stories.

To evict her from her house.
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?

Tell them stories.

Move to the city.

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

Help them with their love life.
5 What does the old woman tell the children in response?

To go back to the city.

The bird is dead.

She doesn't know if the bird is alive or dead, but she does know the bird is in their hands.

The bird is alive.
6 What does Morrison say the old woman's response means?

The old woman loves the children.

The old woman is not actually blind.

It is the children's responsibility.

It is the old woman's bird.
7 What does Morrison say the old woman is calling attention to in her response?

The power of language.

The old woman's power herself.

Assertions of power.

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 language and the old woman is a practiced writer.

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

The bird is prejudice and the old woman is hope.

The bird is language and the children are practiced writers.
9 What is closest to the old woman's idea of dead language?

Generative and powerful.

Unyielding and limiting.

The engraving on a tomb.

An extinct dialect.
10 What is an example of oppressive language, according to the old woman and Morrison?

Rural dialect.

Extinct language.

Racist language

Ageist 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 collapse was a misfortune

The Babylonians achieved their purpose.

The collapse was an accident.
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.

Language is irrelevant to experience.

Experience gestures towards language but cannot substitute for it.
13 What is the measure of our lives, according to Morrison?

Doing language.

Building the Tower of Babel.

Love.

Dying.
14 What is one reason the children are angry with the old woman?

For making fun of them.

For being confident of her wisdom.

For not admitting her weakness to them.

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

A slave wagon on a cold, snowy night in America.

The city they come from.

The steerage cabin of a ship crossing the Atlantic.

A cotton field.
17 What happens to the wagon of slaves in the children's story?

It is sent back to the ship.

It is stolen by runaway slaves.

It stops outside the inn.

It ends up at the auction block.
18 Who comes out of the inn, in the children's story?

The wagon driver.

A plantation owner.

A young boy and girl.

A runaway slave.
19 What do the boy and girl from the inn do?

They free the slaves.

They drive the wagon away from the inn.

They give the slaves in the wagon food and drink.

They tell the slaves a story.
20 What does the young girl do as she passes out food?

She asks them for a story.

She asks them their name.

She offers them more.

She looks into the eyes of each slave.
21 How does the old woman respond to the children's monologue?

She asks them to leave.

She tells them a story of her own.

She says she finally trusts them.

She asks them why they have come.
22 Why does the woman say she trusts the children now?

Because she knows they were playing a joke on her.

Because she knows they are just children.

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

The telling of her history.

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

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 food.

Through narrative.

Through love.

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

1993

2019

1997

1973

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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