For these worksheets, students need to complete 3 things. They should:
1. Guess what the italicized word in the sentence means by using the context clues.
2. Then write the actual meaning of the word from the dictionary (the whole definition).
3. Match the words to the definition.
PREREADING VOCABULARY WORKSHEETS-Things Fall Apart
Chapters 1-4
Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Context Clues
Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence.
Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and write what you think
the underlined words mean in the space provided.
1. The drums beat and the flutes sang and the spectators held their breath.
2. In his day he was lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow.
3. He wore a haggard and mournful look except when he was drinking or playing his flute.
4. An ultimatum was immediately dispatched to Mbaino asking them to choose between war on the
one hand, and on the other the offer of a young man and a virgin as compensation.
5.& 6. And so when Okonkwo of Umuofia arrived at Mbaino as the proud and imperious emissary
of war, he was treated with great honor and respect, and two days later he returned home with
a lad of fifteen and a young virgin.
7. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little
children.
8. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear
of the forest, and of the forces of nature, red in tooth and claw.
9. Okonkwo’s first son, Nwoye, was then twelve years old but was already causing his father great
anxiety for his incipient laziness.
10. But he was struck, as most people were, by Okonkwo’s brusqueness in dealing with less
successful men.
11. Only a week ago a man had contradicted him at a kindred meeting which they held to discuss the
next ancestral feast.
12. But it was really not true that Okonkwo’s palm kernels had been cracked for him by a benevolent
spirit. 38
Prereading Vocabulary Worksheets-Things Fall Apart, p. 2
Note: The harmattan is a dry, dusty wind that blows from the Sahara and along the northwestern coast
of Africa.
Part II: Determining the Meaning Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.
____ 1. spectators A. not providing for the future
____ 2. improvident B. lasting for eternity
____ 3. haggard C. characterized by doing good
____ 4. compensation D. an agent sent in advance
____ 5. imperious E. observers
____ 6. emissary F. related to a clan or tribe
____ 7. perpetual G. impulsive and unpredictable
____ 8. capricious H. abrupt and curt manner; blunt
____ 9. incipient I. arrogantly domineering; overbearing
____ 10. brusqueness J. beginning to exist or appear
____ 11. kindred K. payment; reimbursement
____ 12. benevolent L. appearing worn and exhausted
Prereading Vocabulary Worksheets-Things Fall Apart, p. 3
Chapters 5-7
Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Context Clues
Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence.
Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and write what you think
the underlined words mean in the space provided.
1. The new year must begin with tasty, fresh yams and not the shriveled and fibrous crop of the
previous year.
2. All cooking pots, calabashes, and wooden bowls were thoroughly washed, especially the wooden
mortar in which yam was pounded.
3. The drums rose to a frenzy.
4. Old men nodded to the beat of the drums and remembered the days when they wrestled to its
intoxicating rhythm.
5. Within a short time the two bouts were over.
6. Nwoye would feign annoyance and grumble aloud about women and their troubles.
7. And when he did this he saw that his father was pleased, and no longer rebuked him.
8. They went back to their caves in a distant land, where they were guarded by a race of stunted
men.
9. They were the harbingers sent to survey the land.
10. Okonkwo sat in his obi crunching happily with Ikemefuna and Nwoye, and drinking palm-wine
copiously....
Prereading Vocabulary Worksheets-Things Fall Apart, p. 4
Part II: Determining the Meaning Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.
____ 1. fibrous A. forerunners
____ 2. calabashes B. criticized; reprimanded
____ 3. frenzy C. contests; matches
____ 4. intoxicating D. violent mental agitation; wild excitement
____ 5. bouts E. threadlike
____ 6. feign F. abundantly
____ 7. rebuked G. stopped from growing
____ 8. stunted H. pretend; represent falsely
____ 9. harbingers I. stimulating or exciting
____10. copiously J. containers made from dried gourds
Prereading Vocabulary Worksheets-Things Fall Apart, p. 5
Chapters 8-10
Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Context Clues
Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence.
Use any clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and write what you think
the underlined words mean in the space provided.
1. “When did you become a shivering old woman,” Okonkwo asked himself, “you who are known
in all the nine villages for your valor in war?”
2. As she buried one child after another her sorrow gave way to despair and then to grim
resignation.
3. In that way she will elude her wicked tormentor and break its evil cycle of birth and death.
4. He brought out a sharp razor from the goatskin bag slung from his left shoulder and began to
mutilate the child.
5. Her husband’s wife took this for malevolence, as her husband’s wives were wont to do.
6. At first Ekwefi accepted her, as she had the others - with listless resignation.
7. ...she could not ignore the fact that some really evil children sometimes misled people into digging
up a specious one.
8. “No,” said Ezinma, whose feeling of importance was manifest in her sprightly walk.
9. Most communal ceremonies took place at that time of day....
10. The egwugwu house was now a pandemonium of quavering voices.
11. ...the spirits of the ancestors, just emerged from the earth, greeted themselves in their esoteric
language.
12. There was a loud murmur of approbation from the crowd.
Prereading Vocabulary Worksheets-Things Fall Apart, p. 6
Note: The following words are necessary for understanding the story, but will not be tested.
*On the third day he asked his second wife, Ekwefi, to roast plantains for him.
A banana-like fruit, used as a staple food in tropical regions.
*Obierika was sitting outside under the shade of an orange tree making thatches from the leaves of the
raffia-palm.
Plant stalks or foliage, such as reeds or palm fronds, used for roofing.
*In Abame and Aninta the title is worth less than two cowries.
Any of various tropical marine gastropods of the family Cypraeidae, having glossy, often brightly
marked shells, some of which are used as currency in the South Pacific and Africa.
Part II: Determining the Meaning Match the vocabulary words to their dictionary definitions.
____ 1. valor A. lacking in spirit or energy
____ 2. resignation B. wild uproar or noise
____ 3. elude C. courage in battle; bravery
____ 4. mutilate D. understandable; clear
____ 5. malevolence E. approval
____ 6. listless F. evil or harmful influence
____ 7. specious G. known only to the chosen few
____ 8. manifest H. to disfigure or cripple
____ 9. communal I. of a group of people.
____ 10. pandemonium J. avoid; evade
____ 11. esoteric K. seemingly reliable but incorrect
____ 12. approbation L. lack of resistance; patient submission
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