In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo is a leader of Umuofia (a fictional Nigerian clan) and...

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

• In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe,
  • Okonkwo is a leader of Umuofia (a fictional Nigerian clan)
  • and takes pride in his culture's traditions.
• However,
  • when the arrival of European missionaries brings changes to Umuofia,
• the novel asks a central question:
  • How [? word order] Umuofia's traditions will be affected [? punctuation]

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading and understanding:

The first sentence tells us about the novel and its main character:

• In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe,
  • Okonkwo is a leader of a fictional Nigerian clan called Umuofia
  • and he takes pride in his culture's traditions.

Now the second sentence:

• However, when the arrival of European missionaries brings changes to Umuofia,
  • This sets up a contrast - change is coming to this traditional society
• the novel asks a central question: How ______

Here's where we need to fill in the blank. Let's look at our choices:

• A. Umuofia's traditions will be affected.
• B. will Umuofia's traditions be affected.
• C. Umuofia's traditions will be affected?
• D. will Umuofia's traditions be affected?

What do we notice?

The sentence explicitly tells us this is "a question" that the novel asks, and it starts with the question word "How."

When we form a question in English (especially one that starts with a question word like "how"), we need two things:

• Inverted word order:
  • The helping verb comes BEFORE the subject
  • So we need: "will Umuofia's traditions" (not "Umuofia's traditions will")
  • This is how questions are structured in English
• Question mark at the end:
  • Questions always end with question marks
  • Not periods

So we need: will Umuofia's traditions be affected?

The correct answer is Choice D.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Forming Questions with Question Words

When you form a question using a question word (like "how," "what," "why," "when"), you need to follow two key rules:

Rule 1: Use inverted word order

• The auxiliary verb (helping verb like "will," "can," "does") comes BEFORE the subject
• Statement order: The traditions will be affected
• Subject (traditions) → Auxiliary verb (will) → Main verb (be affected)
• Question order: How will the traditions be affected?
• Question word (How) → Auxiliary verb (will) → Subject (traditions) → Main verb (be affected)

Rule 2: End with a question mark

• All questions require a question mark at the end, never a period
• This applies even when the question is embedded in or introduced by another sentence

In this question:

• The sentence says "the novel asks a central question: How ______"
• The word "How" signals we're forming a question
• So we need: inverted order (will traditions) + question mark
• Result: "How will Umuofia's traditions be affected?"

This rule is sometimes called "subject-auxiliary inversion" in grammar terms, and it's a fundamental pattern for forming questions in English.