We Filipinos Are Mild Drinkers: Context and Meaning

Question 1

Which fact about the author's life best explains why the story's wartime details read as first-hand?

Accepted Answer

He served with a guerrilla unit during the Japanese occupation.

Answer

He served as Secretary of Education in the 1960s.

Answer

He was declared National Artist for Literature in 2003.

Answer

He earned a fine arts degree at a university in the United States.

Question 2

The story is told by a barrio farmer working his field. Why should the learner not treat this narrator as the author himself?

Accepted Answer

The narrator is a created character, not a record of the author's own life.

Answer

A first-person narrator always states the author's own opinions.

Answer

The story is funny, so nothing in it can be true.

Answer

The author wrote in English rather than the narrator's language.

Question 3

The author is remembered as the country's finest writer of comic short stories. Which feature of the story carries that comic method?

Accepted Answer

The straight-faced listing of the drink's uses as an insecticide and a snake-bite cure

Answer

The careful account of how the local drink is distilled

Answer

The list of goods the soldier carries from the army base

Answer

The neighbors' help in moving the soldier out of the house

Question 4

Which of the author's later public acts matches the pride in what is Filipino that runs through the story?

Accepted Answer

He led the campaign to move Independence Day from July 4 to June 12.

Answer

He studied for a fine arts degree at a university abroad.

Answer

He wrote a newspaper column for many years.

Answer

He was named National Artist for Literature in 2003.

Question 5

Which condition of the period explains why American soldiers are moving through a farming barrio at all?

Accepted Answer

American forces were retaking the islands from the Japanese near the end of the war.

Answer

American teachers were arriving to open the first public schools.

Answer

Spanish friars still governed the towns of the countryside.

Answer

Japanese troops still held every road and checkpoint in the province.

Question 6

Drunk, the soldier calls the farmer a Japanese who bombed Pearl Harbor. Which fact of the period gives that insult its sting?

Accepted Answer

Japan had attacked American forces in 1941 and fought America through the war.

Answer

The Philippines had been an American colony since the end of Spanish rule.

Answer

Filipino workers had sailed to Hawaii to cut sugarcane for American planters.

Answer

American soldiers had fought Filipino revolutionaries at the turn of the century.

Question 7

The soldier offers cigarettes, chocolate, canned goods and even jeeps in exchange. Which condition of the time made such an offer sound generous?

Accepted Answer

Years of war had left ordinary goods scarce in the barrios.

Answer

Barrio stores stocked imported goods that villagers preferred.

Answer

The province exported canned food to American buyers.

Answer

Farmers were paid in army supplies instead of money by law.

Question 8

An American air base stands close enough for the farmer to bring the soldier back. Which fact of the period explains that base?

Accepted Answer

American forces built airfields across the islands during the campaign against Japan.

Answer

American planters had built landing strips to fly out sugar.

Answer

The Spanish colonial government had placed garrisons in the towns.

Answer

Airlines had begun carrying passengers between provincial towns.

Question 9

The farmer and the soldier speak to each other in English. Which fact of the period explains how a barrio farmer could do that?

Accepted Answer

American rule had made English the language of the public schools.

Answer

Spanish was the school language through three centuries of Spanish rule.

Answer

The occupation years had pushed Japanese lessons into the schools.

Answer

Trade with America had carried English words into the barrio markets.

Question 10

The farmer takes a stranger from the field into his own house and pours him a drink. Which custom is at work?

Accepted Answer

A host gives a guest the best the house holds, even an unexpected one.

Answer

A farmer must serve any soldier who stops at his field.

Answer

A visitor must be fed before he may ask for directions.

Answer

A guest pays the household for whatever he is served.

Question 11

The soldier offers army goods for what he is served. What does that offer reveal about the two men's positions?

Accepted Answer

He assumes a poor farmer's hospitality can be bought with supplies.

Answer

He is repaying a debt his unit owes the farmer's family.

Answer

The two men are bargaining as equals in a village market.

Answer

The farmer had named a price before pouring the drink.

Question 12

The neighbors turn out to help move the helpless soldier and get him home. What does this show about barrio life?

Accepted Answer

A household's trouble is treated as work the whole neighborhood shares.

Answer

Villagers gather wherever a foreigner can be asked for goods.

Answer

Farm work stops whenever soldiers enter the barrio.

Answer

Only the village leaders may deal with outsiders.

Question 13

Which detail places the story in a rural coconut-growing province rather than in a city?

Accepted Answer

The drink served to the guest is distilled from the coconut palm.

Answer

The soldier arrives looking for a bottle of whiskey.

Answer

The guest speaks about the war in the Pacific.

Answer

The men shout at each other after several drinks.

Question 14

The narrator is first seen plowing his field behind a carabao. What does this opening establish about him?

Accepted Answer

He is a small farmer who works the land himself.

Answer

He is a landowner who hires others to farm for him.

Answer

He is a trader passing through the barrio to sell goods.

Answer

He is a soldier who has just come home from the war.

Question 15

At the base, offered a drink in thanks, the farmer says again that Filipinos are mild drinkers. What is that line doing there?

Accepted Answer

It is a courteous refusal that avoids embarrassing anyone.

Answer

It is a plain report on how much Filipinos really drink.

Answer

It is a boast about the strength of the local liquor.

Answer

It is an apology for the soldier's behavior in the barrio.

Question 16

The soldier judges the farmer's drink by the whiskey he knows at home. How does the story treat that habit of judging?

Accepted Answer

It undercuts it, since the visitor cannot manage the local drink.

Answer

It supports it, since the farmer agrees whiskey is stronger.

Answer

It proves it, since the farmer refuses a drink at the base.

Answer

It ignores it and turns instead to the farmer's work.

Question 17

Which general truth does the story advance?

Accepted Answer

People who boast of their strength often prove least ready for a test.

Answer

Kindness shown to a stranger is always repaid with wealth.

Answer

Old customs should be set aside when strangers arrive.

Answer

A guest should be given whatever he happens to ask for.

Question 18

Which everyday situation carries the same truth the story advances?

Accepted Answer

A new player mocks a village team's worn shoes, then loses badly to them.

Answer

A student copies a classmate's answers and is caught by the teacher.

Answer

A family saves for three years to repair the roof of their house.

Answer

A farmer sells a harvest for much less than it is worth.

Question 19

Which idea about meeting condescension does the story advance?

Accepted Answer

A people can answer being looked down on with hospitality rather than anger.

Answer

A people should copy the customs of a stronger nation.

Answer

A people should refuse every dealing with foreigners.

Answer

A people must prove their worth by winning an argument.

Question 20

The insulted farmer still brings the unconscious soldier back to his companions. Which truth does that ending carry?

Accepted Answer

A person keeps a duty to a guest even when the guest has behaved badly.

Answer

A person should expect thanks for every kindness given.

Answer

A person should avoid strangers who cannot be trusted.

Answer

A person owes nothing to a visitor who insults the household.

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We Filipinos Are Mild Drinkers: Context and Meaning

Ways to Play

Device Games: Students play on their phones

Blast Go

Board Games: Teacher-led, projected to the class

Like what you see?

Zombie Escape

Avalanche

Maze Blast

Cave Climb

Blast Out

Mystery Auction

Tour Guide

Food Truck Rush

Tug of War

Bug Blast

Alien Blast

Glacier Rush

BlastRace

BlastQuiz

BlastBoard

Seek & Destroy

Mystery Blast

Checkers

Texas Hold 'Em

Da Bomb

Castle Siege

Hot Potato

Market Mayhem

King of the Hill

Bank Heist

Top Corner

We Filipinos Are Mild Drinkers: Context and Meaning

Ways to Play

Device Games: Students play on their phones

Blast Go

Board Games: Teacher-led, projected to the class

Like what you see?

More like this

Zombie Escape

Avalanche

Maze Blast

Cave Climb

Blast Out

Mystery Auction

Tour Guide

Food Truck Rush

Tug of War

Bug Blast

Alien Blast

Glacier Rush

BlastRace

BlastQuiz

BlastBoard

Seek & Destroy

Mystery Blast

Checkers

Texas Hold 'Em

Da Bomb

Castle Siege

Hot Potato

Market Mayhem

King of the Hill

Bank Heist

Top Corner