English II Honors / Pre IB Summer Reading and Assignments
Congratulations on earning a place in the English II Honors/Pre IB program at Diamond Bar High School.
In preparation for the year ahead, you are expected to complete a summer reading program. The reading assignments
and expectations for summer are outlined below:
1. Read the novels (available for check out in the LINC) and the packet (available on DBHS main page) listed
below*:
a. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
b. Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston
c. Chapters (1, 4, 5, 10, 12) taken from How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
*It is your responsibility to obtain copies of each of these texts. These texts will be needed this summer as well
as during the first six weeks of the school year. Please note that the LINC has a limited number of copies;
therefore, we also suggest utilizing a public library. You may also choose to purchase these books at Barnes and
Noble in Chino Hills or purchase the novels online. The ISBN numbers are as follows: Things Fall Apart: 0-38547454-7; Farewell to Manzanar: . 0-553-27258-6.
You may also choose to purchase your own copy of How to Read Literature Like a Professor: ISBN:
0-06-000942-X. However, we are only requiring reading from specific excerpts. These scanned documents are
available via the school’s main web page.
2. Complete the attached correlating study guide questions for Things Fall Apart and Farewell To Manzanar. You
may choose to either type your answers or write the answers neatly on separate paper in blue or black ink only.
Complete sentences and well-developed responses are expected. A simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ is an unacceptable
response for any question. Always explain your answers. Illegible or messy work will earn a score of zero.
3. For each scanned chapter (1, 4, 5, 10, 12) of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, list one example and an
explanation of your choice in three to five sentences from your readings in literature that exemplify the main
point of the chapter. One example and explanation must be from Things Fall Apart; and one example and
explanation must be from Farewell to Manzanar. The other three examples and explanations are from
literature of your choice. Choose examples with which you are familiar as you will be expected to work with
these examples during the first few weeks of school. Your work is to be completed on a separate piece of paper
and will be attached and turned in with the study guide on the first day of school Remember, neatness counts.
NOTES:
The completed study guide packets are due the first day of school. No late work will be accepted. If you are not
planning to be in class the first day of school, you must make arrangements for your work to be submitted on time.
Please note that this work will be evaluated for a grade and will be posted as part of the first six week grade in this
course. In addition, during the first week of the school year, you will take an objective test for each literary work
assigned for summer reading. The purpose of these tests is to verify that you read and comprehended the assigned
material. Each test will be worth 100 points toward your first six week grade. We encourage you to take notes as you
read. Highlighting and annotating in the text or using post-it notes to mark passages and to comment are invaluable
tools for interacting with any text. Finally, the summer reading texts will be the topic of the first six weeks of school.
Based on your reading, you will complete various projects and assignments, including essays.
It is imperative you understand that failure to complete the summer reading program and/or failure to achieve an above
average grade on the objective tests and class work will impact your overall grade in the class.
If you have any questions, please see or email through school website Mrs. Cook, Mrs. Galindo, Mrs. Mesdjian, or Mrs.
Tenace PRIOR to the close of this school year. If additional questions arise over the summer break, please contact Mrs.
Galindo via e-mail at juliegalindo@hotmail.com.
Sincerely, The English II Honors/Pre IB Staff
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Directions:
1. Carefully read the novel.
2. Answer the following questions in blue or black ink. Use complete sentences. Clarify pronouns (ex: Okokwo
said…NOT: He said). Write neatly. You may choose to type answers. If so, use single space, Calibri, size 11
font. Attach questions to the front of answers.
3. The study packet is due on the first day of school.
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 1
1.How does eighteen-year-old, Okonkwo, bring honor to his village?
2. Why does Unkona change the subject to music when he and Oybe are discussing the impending war with the village
of Mbaino?
3. Why does Okoye need to collect a past debt from Unkona?
4. Why is Okonkwo considered one of the greatest men of his time?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 2
1.What do the people of Umuofia fear in the night?
2. What is the emergency that the great orator announces at the meeting in the marketplace?
3. Okonkwo of Umuofia is the emissary of war to Mbaino. What does Mbaino give him as an offering for the murder of
the woman from Umuofia?
4. What are the things that Okonkwo fears most?
5. Okonkwo is very prosperous, owning a large compound with many huts, and an abundance of food. Ikemefuna is
given to Okonkwo to live with him until the clan decides Ikemefuna's fate. How does Ikemefuna react to living with
Okonkwo?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 3
1.Under what circumstances will the people of Umuofia consult Agbala, the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves?
When Okonkwo was a boy, his father, Unoka, consults Agbala, the Oracle of the Hills, about why his crops always fail..
What reply did the Oracle give?
2. What is the shameful death Unoka endures?
3. How does Okonkwo react to the disastrous growing season that destroy all his yams and the yams of his people?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 4
1.Why does Okonkwo insult Osugo at a meeting by calling him a woman?
2. How does Nwoye's mother treat Ikemenfuna?
3. Why does Okonkwo beat his second wife, Ojiugo, during the sacred Week of Peace?
4. Why do the people of Umuofia observe the Week of Peace?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 5
1. Why do men and women look forward to the Feast of the New Yam?
2. What drives Okonkwo into a rage on the first day of the festival, leading him to beat his second wife, Ekwefi, and
almost kill her with a gun?
3. The first day of the new year is celebrated with feasting and fellowship. What takes place on the second day of the
new year?
4. Ezinma tells her mother, Ekwefi, that her upper eyelid is twitching. What does Ekwefi tell Ezinma the significance of
the twitch is?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 6
1.Which of the spectators of the wrestling match are allowed to sit around the huge circle of the wrestling ring?
2. Why is the big, ancient silk-cotton tree in the playground considered sacred?
3. Who is the priestess of Agbala, the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves, in real life?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 7
1.What hopes does Okonkwo have for his son, Nwoye's , future?
2. Okonkwo is sitting in his obi with Ikemefuna and Nwoye, eating dried locusts when Ogbuefi Ezeudu comes with a
message. What is the message?
3. After speaking with the elders of nine villages, what does Okonkwo tell Ikemefuna about what is going to happen to
him?
4. Okonkwo and the men of Umuofia take Ikemefuna deep into the forest and kill him with machetes. Who gives the
final thrust of the machete that ends Ikemefuna's life?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 8
1.How does Okonkwo act for two days after Ikemefuna's death?
2. Why does Okonkwo worry about his son, Nwoye?
3. What is a man who holds the ozo title forbidden to do?
4. Obierika's daughter, Akueke, is sixteen, just the right age for marrying. How does her suitor and his relatives
determine if she is ripe for marriage?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 9
1.Ekwefi awakes Okonkwo early in the morning pounding on his door. What is she anxious to tell him?
2. Nine out of ten of Ekwefi's children die in infancy. After the second death, Okonkwo goes to the medicine man to find
out why this is happening. What explanation does the diviner give?
3. What does Okagbue, the medicine man, dig up from under the orange tree that makes the people of the village
believe that Ezinma will live to adulthood?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 10
1. Who are the two groups of people who stand facing the elders at the ceremonial trial?
2. What does the law state in Umuofia if a woman runs away from her husband?
3. What is the first trial's dispute set before Evil Forest and the egwugwu?
4. What is the decision of the egwugwu after hearing the case for Mgbafo's family against Uzowulu?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 11
1. What does Ekwefi do after Chielo carries Ezinma away on her back?
2. Where does Chielo bring Ezinma?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 12
1.Okonkwo's friend, Obierika, is celebrating his daughter's uri. Why does this day put the entire neighborhood into a
festive air?
2. Why do all the women abandon preparing the food for the uri and rush off to the Obierika's crop field?
4. What are the traditional events when night falls and it is time to end Obierika's daughter's uri?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 13
1. What is the name of the man that the ekwe announces to Umuofia?
2. Why can Ezeudu, the oldest man in his village, only be buried at night?
3. What is the tragedy that takes place during the final burial rites for Ezeudu while the cannon is shot and guns fired?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 14
1.Where does Okonkwo bring his family after being banished from his village?
2. What is the final ceremony, Amikwu, Uchendu's youngest son, has to perform before getting married?
3. Why do the people say "Mother is Supreme" when the man is the head of the family and his wives and children are
obedient to him?
4. What does Uchendu tell Okonkwo his duty was?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 15
1. What does the Abame clan do to the first white man that comes to their village?
2. What news does Obierika bring to Okonkwo and Uchendu about the Abame clan?
3. Why does Uchendu say, "Never kill a man who says nothing" when Obierika tells them about the white man the
Abame killed?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 16
1.What happens in Umuofia the next time Obierika comes to visit Okonkwo, two years later?
2. What type of clan members join the white man's religion?
3. Why does Obierika go to visit Okonkwo a second time, two years after the first?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 17
1. What do the people of Mbanta expect to happen to the missionaries when they start building their church?
2. What does Nwoye do after his father, Okonkwo, beats him for being with the missionaries?
3. What is Okonkwo afraid will happen to his male children after he dies?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 18
1.What is the other thing that the white man brought to Umuofia besides religion?
2. What is the first thing Mr. Kiaga orders the outcasts to do if they want to remain in the new religion?
3. What do the rulers and elders of Mbanta decide to do about the Christians after one of the converts kills the Sacred
Python?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 19
1. What does the oldest member of the clan say is the reason for gathering for Okonkwo's feast?
2. Why do the elders fear for the young people of the village?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 20
1. What does Okonkwo hope his sons will be initiated into when his family returns from exile?
2. Who is called the Crystal of Beauty in Mbanta, growing into a healthy, buoyant young woman?
3. Why does Obierika tell Okonkwo that it is too late to fight the white man and drive him from the land?
4. When Aneto kills Oduche over a land dispute, what does the white man's government decide?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 21
1.Who is the white missionary that makes friends with great men of the clan and is presented with a carved elephant
tusk?
2. What is the name of the god that the people of Umuofia believe is the creator of the all the world and the other gods?
3. How does Mr. Brown encourage the people to attend school?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 22
1. What does Mr. Smith tell the people about ogbanje, the evil children who are born over and over again to plague their
mothers?
2. What does Enoch do that is one of the greatest crimes a man can commit during the annual ceremony?
3. What does the angry band of egwugwu do to Enoch's compound and the Christian church as revenge for unmasking
one of the ancestral spirits?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 23
1. What does the District Commissioner do three days after the destruction of the church?
2. What happens to the six leaders of Umuofia during their meeting with the District Commissioner?
3. What punishment does the District Commissioner give the six leaders of Umuofia?
4. Why do the men of Umuofia meet in the marketplace after the village crier beats the message on the ogene?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 24
1.What happens to the six leaders of Umuofia once the fine is paid to the District Commissioner?
2. What does Okonkwo feel the greatest obstacle to going to war against the white man is?
3. What does Okonkwo do when the court messengers come to the meeting, telling the clan to stop?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 25
1.Why do Obierika and the other clan members need help getting Okonkwo's body down from the tree?
2. Who can bury the body of a clan member who commits suicide?
3. What does Obierika yell to the District Commissioner after Okonkwo's body is taken down?
Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston
Directions:
1. Carefully read the novel.
2. Answer the following study guide questions on separate paper. Use complete sentences. Clarify pronouns (ex:
“Jeanne believes” NOT “She believes”). Use blue or black ink. Write neatly. If you choose to type answers:
single space, use Calibri size 11 font. Staple questions to the front of your answers.
3. Study Guide questions are due the first day of school.
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 1, What is Pearl Harbor?
1. What is surprising about the morning at the wharf?
2. Of what is Jeanne's father accused?
3. What do many Americans fear that all Japanese are doing?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 2, Shikata Ga Nai
1. Why does the Navy make the Japanese families move away from Terminal Island?
2. What item does Jeanne's mother refuse to sell, deciding instead to break it?
3. Why is the family relieved to arrive at the camp?
4. What surrounds the camp?
5. How many people does the family have to fit into two units?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 3, A Different Kind of Sand
1. What does Woody have Ray and Kiyo do to improve the barracks?
2. What is Mama furious about that first day?
3. Who reassures Mama that they can make the barracks better?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 4, A Common Master Plan
1. What do the women use for privacy in the camps?
2. Many people in the camp become sick because of what reason?
3. What is the greatest humiliation in the camps?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 5, Almost a Family
1.What draws families apart on Manzanar?
2. Who is required to work in the camp?
3. When does Papa return to the family?
4. What is the first thing the family sees with Papa?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 6, Whatever He Did Had Flourish
1. Where does Papa go after leaving Japan?
2. What school does Papa enter?
3. At Fort Lincoln, what did Papa work as?
4. Issei means what?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 7, Fort Lincoln: An Interview
1. How much longer has Papa lived in the United States versus his interrogator?
2. The interview of Wakatsuki Ko shows he is what kind of man?
3. Why hasn't Papa contacted his family in Japan?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 8, Inu
1. What happens when the gossip of the camp about Papa is shared with Papa?
2. To what does Jeanne attribute her father's actions?
3. How long is Kiyo gone from the family barracks?
4. What happens to Papa's nose?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 9, The Mess Hall Bells
1.What is the most disturbing and disgraceful situation for most men held at Manzanar?
2. What does Papa think about the violence in the camp?
3. What is a reminder that the people are not free?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 10, The Reservoir Shack: An Aside
1.Who is in charge of the reservoir crew?
2. What does the reservoir crew fear?
Chapter 11, YES YES, NO NO
1.The government requires that everyone seventeen or older signs what type of document?
2. Papa finally leaves the barracks to do what?
3. The anti-American Japanese want what?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 12, Manzanar, U.S.A.
1. What does Manzanar mean in Spanish?
2. What helps alleviate the overcrowding in the camp?
3. What hobby does Papa begin to do?
4. What does Papa sketch?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 13, Outings, Explorations
1. What hobby does Jeanne try that she comes to believe is a horrible abuse of the body?
2. Why can't Jeanne participate in the odori lessons?
3. What does Jeanne explore that her father is against?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 14, In the Firebreak
1. Who does Jeanne go to more and more when she needs comfort?
2. What does Mama announce to Papa and Jeanne?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 15, Departures
1. By the end of 1944, about how many people are left at Manzanar?
2. Who is the first of the family to leave?
3. What is Jeanne reminded of when Woody leaves?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 16, Free to Go
1. How does Jeanne's family react to the news that the camps are closing?
2. What does Jeanne fear as the camps close?
3. Who needs to be escorted to the train station to protect them from the crowds?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 17, It's All Starting Over
1. What ends all hope for staying at Manzanar?
2. What worries Papa after the bombing of Hiroshima?
3. Why is there a housing shortage on the West Coast?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 18, Ka-Ke, Near Hiroshima: April 1946
1. Why did the family erect a gravestone with Papa's name on it?
2. How many of Papa's family died in the bombing of Hiroshima?
3. What does the experience of visiting the family show Woody?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 19, Re-Entry
1. What is the greatest difficulty that the family faces in L.A.?
2. Where does Mama go to work?
3. How many members of the family go to Los Angeles?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 20, A Double Impulse
1. What is Jeanne's return to school and outside life like?
2. Where does Jeanne find that she is accepted?
3. Which organization does Jeanne try to join but is refused membership?
4. With whom does Jeanne make friends?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 21, The Girl of My Dreams
1.What would Jeanne be horrified about if anyone asked her out on a date?
2. Where does Jeanne complete her senior year of high school?
3. What does Papa grow on the land he leases?
Short Answer Questions - Chapter 22, Ten Thousand Voices
1. How does Jeanne perceive Manzanar?
2. How do Jeanne and her family deal with the memories of Manzanar?
3. Who breaks the dam of Jeanne's memories about Manzanar?