A Prayer for the Living EOC Questions

As the narrator goes longer without food, they...

• become more desperate to eat

• become more aware of what's around them

• wish to die more quickly

• forget where they are

Why isn't the narrator afraid of death?

• They already feel like they're dead.

• They know that death is inevitable.

• They are confident they'll survive.

• They don't have anyone left alive.

What is the narrator's purpose?

• To bring food to their family.

• To die peacefully.

• To find their family, dead or alive.

• To escape the war with their family.

How does the music in the text affect the narrator?

• It guides them and gives them strength.

• It convinces them their lover is alive.

• It provides them with hope.

• It makes them happy to be alive.

Reread the passage below:

What could I choose? Human life — full of greed and bitterness, dim, low-oxygenated, judgmental and callous, gentle, too, and wonderful as well, but… human life had betrayed me.

And besides, there was nothing left to save in me. Even my soul was dying of starvation.

Based off this passage, the narrator feels...

• saddened by the discovery of his lover

• conflicted about human life

• anger towards the white men

• scared to join the dead

How does the narrator die?

• reluctantly

• peacefully

• suddenly

• violently

Which statement best expresses a theme of the passage?

• True suffering can be more painful than the idea of death.

• It's impossible to understand death if you haven't seen it with your own eyes.

• The love of our friends and family can give us strength when we have none left.

• There are no winners in war, only death and destruction.

Which quote from the text best demonstrates the theme of the story?

• "I see the dead,…They are more joyful now; they are happier than we are; and they are everywhere, living their luminous lives as if nothing had happened, or as if they were more alive than we are." (Paragraphs 4-5)

• "All that mattered was how well they handled the grim mathematics of the wars, so that they could win the most important battle of all, which was for the leadership of the fabulous graveyard of this once beautiful and civilized land." (Paragraph 12)

• "I had no strength left, and it was only the song's last echo, resounding through the vast spaces of my hunger, that sustained me." (Paragraph 25)

• "I sang silently even when a good-hearted white man came into the school building with a television camera and, weeping, recorded the roomful of the dead for the world" (Paragraph 34)

How does the structural timeline of the story help build suspense?

• The structural timeline of the story highlights the narrator's own deteriorating health, leaving readers to wonder if they are going to live long enough to find their family.

• The structural timeline of the story allows readers to know that the narrator's family is dead before the narrator finds out for themselves.

• The structural timeline of the story doesn't give readers any indication whether the narrator's family is alive until they find the bodies.

• The structural timeline of the story doesn't give readers details about the bodies that the narrator finds, leaving readers unsure if they were members of their family.

How is the narrator affected by their own starvation?

• The narrator is energized by their starvation, as it reminds them that they are alive.

• They narrator is numb to their starvation, due to the persisting pain they feel.

• The narrator is unaffected by their starvation, as they are more concerned for their family.

• The narrator in comforted by their starvation, as they know they don't have much time left.