Answer Key: Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison At West Point: The Moral Ambiguities of War

II. While Reading

Vocabulary

Word Inference

  1. mess hall-noun-a room or building where groups of people, esp. soldiers, eat together.
  2. rousing |ˈrouziNG|-adjective-exciting; stirring: a rousing speech.
  3. Romanesque |ˌrōməˈnesk|-adjective-of or relating to a style of architecture that prevailed in Europe c. 900–1200, although sometimes dated back to the end of the Roman Empire (5th century).
  4. cadet |kəˈdet|-noun-a young trainee in the armed services or police force: an air force cadet.-a student in training at a military school.
  5. reintegrate reintegrate |rēˈintəˌgrāt|-verb [ with obj. ]• restore to a position as a part fitting easily into a larger whole: it can be difficult for an offender to be reintegrated into the community.
  6. *PTSD abbreviation- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.-PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health problem that can occur after someone goes through a traumatic event like war, assault, or disaster.
  7. luminary |ˈlo͞oməˌnerē|-noun ( pl. luminaries )-a person who inspires or influences others, esp. one prominent in a particular sphere: one of the luminaries of child psychiatry.
  8. inspiration |ˌinspəˈrāSHən|-noun-the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative. He is an inspiration to everyone.
  9. curriculum |kəˈrikyələm|-noun ( pl. curricula |-lə| -curriculums )-the subjects comprising a course of study in a school or college.
  10. ambiguity |ˌambiˈgyo͞o-itē|-noun ( pl. ambiguities )-uncertainty or inexactness of meaning in language: we can detect no ambiguity in this section of the Act .

Sources:

New Oxford American Dictionary

*Dept. of Veterans Affairs

Reading Comprehension

True / False

  1. T- Toni Morrison was asked to speak at West Point.
  2. F-Ms. Morrison  sat at one of the 420 wooden tables in the flag-bedecked Washington Hall.
  3. F-The novel is the story of Frank Money, a black Georgia native and Korean War veteran struggling to reintegrate into civilian life in.
  4. F-PTSD is a disease usually suffered by many soldiers.
  5. F-Ms. Morrison teaches at  Princeton, where she is an emeritus professor.
  6. T-After lunch Ms. Morrison settled into a big leather chair and read three passages from “Home.”
  7. During the interview Ms. Morrison said “I dare you to tell me a sane reason we went to Iraq.”
  8. T-During the interview Ms. Morrison said “I dare you to tell me a sane reason we went to Iraq.”
  9. T-At West Point cadets are made to struggle with moral ambiguity, so that when they confront tangled scenarios, they will be able to do that well.
  10. T-One student stated that they  related to the book, especially since we signed up for the academy during a time of war.
  11. T-This student’s father was stationed in Iraq for over a year.

Grammar

Structure and Usage

I-b-Washington Hall is  a majestic Romanesque structure at the United States Military Academy.

II-a- During the interview Ms. Morrison said she was concerned about the number of suicides by veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan

III-b- After lunch Ms. Morrison moved to  the Robinson Auditorium.

IV. Listening Activity   

Video Clip:  Toni Morrison | “Home” Authors at Google

Pre-Listening Words and terms

  1. scab |skab|-noun-• a dry, rough protective crust that forms over a cut or wound during healing.
  2. silence |ˈsīləns|-verb [ with obj. ]-cause to become silent; prohibit or prevent from speaking: the team’s performance silenced their critics | freedom of the press cannot be silenced by tanks.
  3. Korean War-the war of 1950–53 between North and South Korea.
  4. UN troops, dominated by US forces, countered the invasion of South Korea by North Korean forces by invading North Korea, while China intervened on the side of the North. Peace negotiations were begun in 1951, and the war ended two years later with the restoration of previous boundaries.
  5. McCarthyism |məˈkärTHēˌizəm|-noun-a vociferous campaign against alleged communists in the US government and other institutions carried out under Senator Joseph McCarthy in the period 1950–54. Many of the accused were blacklisted or lost their jobs, although most did not in fact belong to the Communist Party.
  6. experiment-noun |ikˈsperəmənt|-experimentation |ikˌsperəmənˈtāSHən|noun-• a course of action tentatively adopted without being sure of the eventual outcome: the previous experiment in liberal democracy had ended in disaster.
  7. LSD |ˌɛl ˌɛs ˈdi|-noun-a synthetic crystalline compound, lysergic acid diethylamide, that is a potent hallucinogenic drug.
  8. narrative |ˈnarətiv|-noun-a spoken or written account of connected events; a story: the hero of his modest narrative.

 While Listening

Multiple choice

  1.  a- taking the scab off of the view people had of  the 50s  in America.
  2.  c. a peaceful time in America.
  3.  a. silenced or ignored.
  4.  c. the Korean War.
  5.  b.  a police action.
  6.  b. anti-McCarthyism
  7.  c.  lost their jobs and committed suicide.
  8.   a. soldiers during the Vietnam war.
  9.  b. didn’t  like
  10. a. books.
  11.  b.  painting in a cave,  dancing, singing,  painting their faces.