Genre/Info/Audience
What type of genre is Unusual Normality?
personal essay
What is the best inference that can be made about the author’s message in
paragraph 17?
a. Significant cultural differences exist between Sierra Leone and the United States.
b. Bureaucracies sometimes enforce regulations at the expense of those in need.
c. Americans have difficulty comprehending the horrors endured in war-torn places like Sierra Leone.
d. War inflicts emotional scars that time may be slow to heal.
answer: c. Americans have difficulty comprehending the horrors endured in war-torn places like Sierra Leone.
The author’s traumatic past shaped his response to his new environment. In which two of Ishmael Beah’s experiences in New York does he carry himself like a soldier?
a. In the airport upon arrival
b. When strangers walk by
c. When the boys go rollerblading
d. On a weekend trip upstate
e. In his meetings with school principals
answer: b and d
Who is the author of Unusual Normality?
Ishmael Bael
Words and phrases such as "humongous" or "weirded out" help establish the author’s
personality, or —
a. tone
b. voice
c. purpose
d. message
b. voice
Explain what the term "spylike" means according to the text, Unusual Normality.
a. the author's choice of words seem to say that the person's/character's thoughts are being described but not being said
b. the author's/character's choice of words explain he was paid to be a spy
c. the author's/character's thoughts were spoken outloud explicity to let others know he was a spy
d. the author's/character's dialougue explains that his spylike behavior had him killed in The Bronx, NYC.
answer: a. the author's choice of words seem to say that the person's/character's thoughts are being described but not being said
Who is the most likely intended audience for this essay?
a. School principals and administrators
b. Foster parents of war orphans
c. Fellow Sierra Leonean child soldiers
d. Americans or Westerners in general
answer: d. Americans or Westerners in general
What tone or attitude is suggested in the quoted text in paragraph 26 and the explanation that follows?
a. Confusion
b. Persistence
c. Confidence
d. Resentment
answer: c. confidence
FREEBIE: What two countries are talked about quite often in the personal essay, Unusual Normality?
a. USA and Canada
b. USA and Mexico
c. USA and Sierra Leone
d. USA and Russia
answer: c. USA and Sierra Leone
Read these sentences from paragraph 9.
It was a chance at living again, because all I had come to know, since I was eleven, was how to survive. I didn’t know how to live.
The tone of these sentences emphasizes that the author—
a. was forced to become a soldier as a child
b. was able to take advantage of certain stereotypes
c. was forced to grow up quickly in Sierra Leone
d. was able to succeed as an immigrant to the United States
answer: c. was forced to grow up quickly in Sierra Leone
What word best describes the connotation of weird in paragraph 26?
a. Irregular
b. Peculiar
c. Extreme
d. Remarkable
answer: b. peculiar
Part A The author's choice of words seem to say that the person's/character's thoughts are being described but not being said
Part B Part B
Which quote from the selection best supports the answer to Part A?
Part A
a. To compare his superficial friendships in Sierra Leone with the real friendships that he forged while living in New York
b. To describe the disconnection he felt from American teenagers after arriving in the
United States
c.To explain why American teenagers are not interested in the difficult circumstances faced by children in war-torn countries
d.To narrate a true story about how being a child soldier in Sierra Leone influenced his views about glamorized violence
Part B
a. Thus began my two years of high school and making other teenagers confused about who I was. You see, I didn’t fit into any box. I didn’t have the same worries about what shoes or clothes I wore. (paragraph 21)
b. And I realized that the way I conducted myself would determine whether they would ever let another child who had been through war into such a school. (paragraph 31)
c. To them it was sufficient that I was just some kid who lived in the East Village, who was from an African country. (paragraph 32)
d. They glorified it in a way, because they’d never actually experienced it at all. (paragraph 40)
answers: B & A
Freebie: Explain in your own words three things that you can personally relate to in Unusual Normality?
teacher discretion
What is the connotation of macho in paragraph 60?
a. Aggressive
b. Powerful
c. Determined
d. Boastful
answer: d. boastful
Label the items in the order in which they appear in the text. The first item will be labeled 1, and the last will be labeled 4.
School officials cannot relate to the trials of Beah, a former child soldier.
Having been at actual war for his life, Beah excels at paintball.
Beah describes his childhood in Sierra Leone.
Beah learns that the bravado of young Americans is false.
2
4
1
3