The Danger of a Single Story

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following had the greatest influence on Adichie early in her life?

A) Trips to visit local villages

B) Reading British and American stories

C) Her cousins and playmates

D) Her parents’ professions

2. Which of the following things does Adichie make an important connection between?

A) Her roommate’s response to Adichie’s life and her response to Fide’s life

C) Fide’s poverty and her own lack of bread and jam

D) Education in Nigeria and education in America

D) Her childhood writing efforts and her adult writing successes

3. What does Adichie emphasize with her references to John Lok and Rudyard Kipling?

A) The wisdom of Western culture

B) The impact of published materials

C) The danger of stereotypes

D) The consequences of personal experiences

4. Which word best describes Adichie’s tone in the speech?

A) Accepting

B) Resentful

C) Critical

D) Empathetic

5. Which of the following literary devices is demonstrated in Adichie’s use of American Psycho to respond to the stereotype of Nigerian men?

A) Metaphor

B) Irony

C) Symbolism

D) Oxymoron

6. Which statement offers the best interpretation of Adichie’s statement that “the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete”?

A) Stereotypes are the first step in building empathy.

B) Stereotypes flatten individual experiences.

C) Stereotypes are based upon truth.

D) Stereotypes interfere with personal growth.

7. What is Adichie’s purpose in offering her multiple “what if” examples?

A) To promote the business ventures of fellow Nigerians

B) To point out the flaws in criticisms of Nigerians

C) To depict the negative aspects of Nigerian life

D) To fill in the stories of Nigerian people

8. How would Adichie most likely characterize the danger of a single story?

A) A critique on our personal opinions

B) A battle between different cultures

C) An oversimplification of people we don’t know

D) A call for rebellion against the status quo

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. How can stories “break the dignity of a people [but also] repair that broken dignity”?

2. What experiences prompted Adichie to examine her own beliefs, and what did she learn?