Hardage's English Class

mrhardage@yahoo.com
214/789-0359 (cell)
68262
Hits since 31 March 2008.










Pretoria, Republic of South Africa is as close as my weather service gets to Botswana.
Questions to consider:
1.  Where is Botswana?
2.  How long has it been independent?  From whom.
3.  What was its name before that?
4.  Whose land was it called?
5.  What is an acacia tree?
6.  When is it set?  (Published?)

Reading/Quiz Schedule:
In detail as it develops, but you can plan of 20-25 pages per day.

First Quiz Monday, 4/7/08 over Chapters 1-8, ninety-two pages.
Chapter 1, "The Daddy".
pages 3 -14

1.  What are the assets of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency?
2.  Is Mma Ramotswe a woman of action or contemplation, and why do you say that?
3.  What, exactly is/was the Bechuanaland Proctectorate? 
4.  When did the Bechuanaland Protectorate gain its independence, and from whom?
5.  How did Precious Ramotswe fund the start-up of her detective agency?
6.  What are some of the things involved in "everything has been something before" that Mma thinks about?
7.  Where, on a map of Botswana, is Gaborone?
8.  What is an acacia tree?
9.  What is a Brahmin in the context of this story?
What or who is he/it?
10.  Who is/was Khama?
11.  Where on the map is Mochudi?
12.  Define "dither."
13.  Was her father excited and supportive
about her starting her detective agency. 
Document your evidence.
14.  What is the study of the shape of the head
called?
15.  Where is Bulawayo?  Which direction? 
What country is it in?
16.  Who or what is (a) Motswana?
17.  Where is Maun on the map?
18.  Who is Happy Bapetse?  About how old is she?
What is her position in business?  How big is her house? 
Does she own it or rent it? 
19.  How long has Happy's Daddy been gone, and, now, how long has he been home?
20.  What does Happy want Precious to do for her?
21.  Define "effrontery"
22.  Define "chicanery."
23.  What is the allusion to Solomon about?
24.  "There were blood tests these days."  (pg. ll)  What
sort of blood test did Mma Ramotswe eimploy?
25.  Define "charlatan."
26.  What or where is Lobatse?
27.  Was Happy happy with the results the No. ! Ladies'
Detective Agency produced?  Document your answer.
The Ladies' No. 1 Detective Agency
by Alexander McCall Smith, 1998
Chapter 2, "All Those Years Ago".
pages 15 - 30
Interactive weather map of southern Africa


1.  Who is Obed Ramotswe? Where was he born?
Who was he named for?
2.  Where is Francistown on the map?
3.  Where is Plumtree?  In what country?
4.  What is Setswana?  A second relationship table shows this . . .
5.  What is a hornbill?  What is a molope?
6.  What does Dutch Reformed refer to in the Hospital?
Are we talking here about medical practices?
7.  Who are the Sotho miners?
8.  Wha do the lyrics of the song mean?
"The mines eat men.
  Even when you have left them,
  The mines may still be eating you."
9.  What specific things will Obed Ramotswe mean when he says, "The only thing that makes me sad is that I shall be leaving Africa when I die."
10.  Where are Angola and Namibia that they block access to the sea?
11.  What is/are Tswana?
12.  Look at page 19 (in the Anchor Books edition by Random House) where Obed talks about God.  Is this man a deep or shallow thinker?  Document your answer and relate it to how you think.
13.  Locate Lesotho, Mozambique, and Malawi on the map.  Listen to Malawi's national anthem.
14.  Listen to Botswana's national anthem.
15.  Why do people to to South Africa (Republic of South Africa) to work in the mines?
16.  What is a Boer?  What was the Boer War?
17.  Where is Mafikeng, and why is it a historical site?
18.  What is biltong?
19.  Where is Johannesburg?  Which country.  Why do people go there?
20.  Where is/was Western Transvaal?
21.  What is Funagalo?
22.  How does Obed see the Earth?  As alive or dead?  Consider his
words ". . . rock sense.  He had to be able to see what the rock was
doing -- what it was feeling -- . . ."  (pg. 23)
23.  What/who are Swazis?  Basotho?  What is a sjambok?
24.  What is a gramophone?
25.  How long did Obed work in the mines?
26.  What is Xhosa?  Afrikaans?
27.  What is a totsi/tsotsi?
28.  When did Obed leave the mines?  Therefore he had gone down into
mines what year?  That means he got married when, based on the text?  And his wife (Precious' mother)
died when?  And how often, for how long, did he get to see her while he was working in the mines?
29.  What is a kopje?  What is sufuba?  (Actually I could not find a specific definition of this disease.)
30.  How many white men did Obed meet when he was working in the mines that he made friends with?
Did he make any friends of them?  Did he see any of them after he left the mines?  How many?
31.  How much money is 200 rands in today's US dollars?  Bear in mind that the US dollar has decreased
markedly in value over the past five years due to many factors, including the Iraq War.  However,
currencies always have a relative value that remains more or less constant.
32.  What did Obed do with that money?


Assignment: Due 24 April
Illustrated timeline of this story on a poster. 
If it's mentioned (besides other countries)
it goes in the timeline. 
Funagalo (“Funny galore”)
A patois developed by Afrikaner and Anglo mine owners in South Africa so that their workers who came from many different African tribes could communicate. It is basically a collection of the words common to many Bantu tongues. The language is very limited in vocabulary but knowledge of it will enable you to speak a pidgin version of most Bantu tongues. See ChiLapaLapa
Chapter 3, "Lessons About Boys and Goats,"
pages 20 - 44

1.  What does it require to change o storeroom into a person's living room, to make it ". . . luxury almost beyond
imagination . . .?
2.  Whom did he install in that room?  Why did she not go home to her mothen?
3.  What was her crime?  How long ago?  Did her ex-husband maintain any kind of contact with her?
4.  If Precious is now four years old, how long after her mother's death did her Daddy invite the lady into his
house? 
5.  Was her father a good man, or did he take
advantage of his cousin?
6.  Why did "cousin" want the baby to
be clever?  What, exactly, does that word
mean here?
7.  What was the name of the (only?) store in
town?
8.  What is a marula? 
"A pip" here means "a seed."
9.  Where is Kenya?  Who is Dr. Louis Leakey? 
Who is Dr. Richard Leakey? 
Who is Lucy?  Why is she named so? 
This information is in the "Lucy" link. 
10.  Who is Sir Seretse Khama?  Have we seen
this man before, or a relative of his?
Note the banknote.  Why are the colors
different?
11.  Where did Precious Ramotswe learn the
difference between good and evil?
12.  In what range of their voices did the
Sunday School children sing?  Why?
13.  Who was this boy named Josiah? 
Did Precious enjoy knowing him?
14.  On page 18, the author says "this lesson stayed with her for many years, and was to prove very useful
later on, as were all the lessons of Sunday School."  Is this foreshadowing?  To what does it refer,
specifically?
15.  How long did the cousin look after Precious?
16.  Why did she leave?
17.  Who paid for the wedding?  How big was it?  How many
cattle were slaughtered?  How much beer was
bought/brewed?  It is important, actually, to note
where the beer was bought or brewed.  How is this
different from our country today?
18.  At least one route of the bus company was between the
cities of Gaborone and where?
19.  How far away did the cousin move to live with her new
husband?
20.  Who was the best artist in Mochodi?  What was the topic
of the winning drawing?
21.  Did the judging committee understand the subject of the
drawing?
22.  How did the government Minister describe
Precious Ramotswe?

Chapter 4, "Living With the Cousin and the Cousin's Husband," pages 45 - 59

1.  How old was Precious when she went to live with her father's cousin?  What year was this?
2.  Was this a punishment or a treat?  Document your answer.
3.  Her Daddy, in his thoughts, considers that ". . . love was a form of blindness that closed the eyes to the
most glaring faults."  In what way is this foreshadowing?
4.  What is the cousin's husband's source of wealth?  There is a finite number attached to this.
5.  Is the OK Bazaars store a fictional creation of this writer?  Well, how about the Small Upright
General Dealer?
6.  How do the other clerks in the bus company feel about the way Precious works?
7.  How does Precious feel about the way she works?
8.  How much money is involved in Precious' first detective case?
9.  Who is Note Mokoti?  Where did she meet him?  Why did she not walk away from in on the street?  What
is the simile used in that scene?  What is a mealie?
10.  How many years has Precious worked with her cousin and her husband?  This makes her how old?
What year would this be, then?
11.  What is the old way for a daughter to greet her father?
12.  How does Ramotswe's father feel about people and their cattle?
13.  When Note said, "You see most people in this country once or twice."  "There are no strangers."  What is
he saying about the size of the population and the size of the country?
14.  Yes, with the trumpet, he is a musician.  What kind of music is Quella?
15.  What is a braavivleis?
16.  What were your impressions when Precious and Note first were together?  Is that a right way for
people to act?  Why did she not leave?
17.  After  Note, without Precious there with him, asked her fother for her, what did Obed say to his
daughter?
18.  Precious knew "Hew was not a good man . . ."  Why did she not leave him?
19.  What part to humiliation, urgency, and pregnancy play in this drama?
20.  Is October hot or cold in Botswana?
21.  Did the Dutch Reformed Church minister who married Precious and Note think it was a good idea?
22.  Did Precious support Note at his jazz club gigs?
23.  Who are: Hugh Masakela?    Dollar Brand?       Spokes Machobane?
24.  What happened when Precious quit coming to Note's gigs?
25.  What happened when Precious got home from the hospital?
26.  What do these numbers signify?
14
34
  5
  1

Chapter 5, "What You Need to Open a Detective Agency," pages 60 - 72

1.  Where on the map is Pilane?
2.  Where was Obed's money banked?
3.  What was the final clue to Precious that the lawyer had no understanding of the world, or women, specifically?
4.  Who is Precious model detective/observer of human nature?
5.  On what street did Precious find her house?
6.  Did she build a new building for her agency, or did she buy an existing structure with a history of other
businesses in it?
7.  Where did she buy her typewriter?  Why did she not buy a computer with word-processing software?
8.  Describe Mma Makutsi, the secretary.
9.  What is a ghastly mistake?  Describe a skeletal dog.
10.  What is a parlous job?
11.  What is the name of the first official client of the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency?
12.  What are the three stages of loss when a woman's man goes missing?
13.  What day did the husband go missing?  Whom/what did Precious suspect?
14.  Is Precious Christian?  Ponder that . . . consider reasons pro and con.
15.  What is the story on the missing man, the sinner whom God called to his bosom, according to Reverend
Shadreck Mapele?
16.  What is your first though Precious is going to do with the dog?  Is that what she did?
17.  Who taught her to shoot a rifle?
18.  Was the first official client of the Agency satisfied with the Agency's services?
19.  How did the client express her grief?
Chapter 6, "Boy," pages 73 - 78
- This is not a pleasing story.  It is well written, but it is out of place here. -
- I'm not sure why it's here. -

1.  How old is the boy?  But he looks how old?
2.  Why do the parents secretly think he's small?
3.  What's the strangest thing about this boy, other than his size, in his society?
4.  What time of day does the action really start in this story?
5.  What is the story the man with the strange lip is telling about?
6.  What is bilharzia?
7.  Is this a story about family vengance?
Chapter 8, "A Conversation with Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni,"
pages 86 - 92

1.  Based on the age of J.L.B. Matekone, how old is Precious Ramotswe?  What year is this now?
2.  What qualities did this gentleman have that Precious saw as attractive?
3.  Why do these two people enjoy talking together?
4.  Perhaps a santawana took the boy or a thokolosi.