The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind study guide – Flashcards
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Bad things come with magic.
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What did the bubble gum story indicate about William's belief in magic?
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His father is a kind man who cares about his son. He isn't worried about magic.
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William's father paid for the bag. What does that indicate about his father?
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What else you might let inside.
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Once you opened your heart to magic, you never know ______________________?
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Power.
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With God on your side, they (the wizards) have no ________?
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Gilberts
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Whose father is the chief?
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Bonjour
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The slang "bo" is short for which word that means "hello" in French?
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Wire and empty carton of booze.
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With what materials did they make their own trucks, which were like a go-carts?
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Frequent power outages.
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What was the problem with getting a haircut in the trading center?
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When planning misfortune for your friends, be careful because it will come back to haunt you. You must always wish others well.
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What was the moral of the story of the leopard and the lion?
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He was a traveling trader.
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What was William's father's occupation before he became a farmer?
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He fought twelve guys and won.
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Why was his father famous?
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Hastings Kamuzu Banda
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When his father was young, who controlled Malawi?
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No other photo could hang higher than the president photo. If you didn't have his picture in the store you would have to pay.
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What rules did the president have for his picture in any trader's shop?
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The president's thugs the "Young Pioneers" would snatch you up and tortured, put you in prison and even tossed you into a pit of hungry crocodiles.
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What happened to anyone who dared to question the president's policies?
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The Scottish missionary David Livingstone who helped end slavery, opened Malawi to trade and built good schools and missions.
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According to history, what ended the fighting between the Yao William's mother's people, and the Chewa, his father's?
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Women William's father didn't care for this and because of that people called him the Pope
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On what did a lot of traders waste their money? How was William's father different? What nickname did this earn him?
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His father policeman aside to get in. He danced and people wanted this drunkard to be removed. He had to fight a lot of policemen and young pioneers and won until he got tired and agreed to be arrested after he enjoyed his barbecue.
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What happened to William's father when Robert Fumulani came to visit on Malawian Independence Day?
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God
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Following the incident, the Judge advised his father to "turn his life over to___________"
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He saw her enter the market.
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How did William's mother and father first meet?
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He was a middleman finding jut the right person to do the job, since he was right most of the time the estates paid him a lot. Started a farm import business buying and selling maize seed and fertilizer to farmers.
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How did his uncle John make his fortune? What did he do with the money he made?
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His Dad spent all his spare time he had building and weekends building it. and building materials. By William Dad and sometimes Uncle John's workers.
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How was William's family house built and by whom?
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By Phiri's nephew Shabani offered it to him he said yes but Shabani conned by not telling you weren't allowed to bathe with this. Or he was cheated.
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How did William try to obtain the magic known as mangolomera? What happened?
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Tuberculosis.
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How did Uncle John fall ill?
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The chief.
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Who decides the outcome when a powerful man dies?
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He was Uncle John's first born son. He took the money and disappeared and returned after most of the money was gone.
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Why did Jeremiah inherit Uncle John's business? What did he do with it?
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He made sure every farmer could get fertilizer. Seed was cheap. Made the farmers fend for themselves.
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What effect did the new president of Malawi's policies have on small farmers?
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It was Uncle Socrates dog.
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How did William first meet the dog, Khamba?
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baited it with a glue. and fought who could pull off the heads.
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Trapping birds was often the only way to get meat. Describe how William was innovative in hunting the birds?
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He earned it by stealing mangos.
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How did William obtain entry into his cousin Charity's clubhouse?
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Bawo.
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What games does William play at the trading center?
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Through trial and error.
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How did Daniel learn how the radio works?
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They heated a thick wire until it became red hot, and then used it to fuse the metal joints togethers.
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What did they use instead of a soldering iron to perform repairs on the radio?
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Because they learned from there mistakes and didn't break anymore radios.
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Why did people bring their broken radios to the boys?
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They depended on maize plots to survive.
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Most Malawians are sustenance farmers. What is sustenance farming?
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It is made by adding maize flour to hot water until scooping into cakes. And everyone depends on it to live.
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What is nsima?
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Only his father William because William is the only bot in the family.
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How many people are involved when William's family plants crops?
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July to November.
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Because they are in the southern hemisphere, in what months did the planting season begin and end?
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The rains were late and didn't come until the last week of December, The rains that followed were too heavy, floods came and carried homes, livestock, seedlings and the fertilizer.
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What happened in December of 2000 that was different?
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In February were wilted and hunched towards the ground. By May the half the crops were burned by the sun.
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What was the effect of the drought on William's family?
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A divice on a bicycle that generates electrify when you pedal the bike. That a spinning wheel can create light,
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What is the bicycle dynamo? What about the dynamo fascinates William?
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If you connected the wires where the batteries went and then peddled would the radio play.
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What experiment does William perform with the dynamo and the radio?
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The radio played. The difference between alternating and direct current.
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What happened when he put the wires in the socket labeled AC? What "discovery" did William make without realizing it?
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They used kerosene lamps.
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How do most people in Africa have light at night?
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Power cuts.
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Even if you paid lots of money and went through the trouble to get electricity, the government would still issue _____ cuts.
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Without the trees the flood waters wash away the minerals in the soil and garbage and runs into the Shire river. Which clogs the dams and causes power cuts.
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Explain William's statement that "cutting down the trees is one of the things that keeps us Malawians poor."
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For ganyu or hand outs of food.
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Why did villagers come to Gilbert's home during the famine?
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He has to he is the chief.
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Why did his father feed them?
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The Agriculture Development Marketing Corporation. A company that sold maize surplus from government farms.
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What is ADMARC? What does it do?
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They sold all the surplus grain for profit.
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According to the opposition speakers, what did the government do with the surplus grain?
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Because the price of maize was rising and his father couldn't wait for it to go any lower.
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Why did William's father sell the livestock?
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Breakfast.
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The first meal to go was______________.
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His mother was already struggling to pay his fees. Also she needed him and his brother to work the field.
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Why did William figure that Geoffrey wouldn't go to school?
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Gilbert's father the chief. After he spoke the presidents thugs took his away and beat him up.
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Who finally asks the challenges about the "war against hunger" in Malawi? What happened to him?
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Supper. Because it is easier to keep your mind off of hunger during the day
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What was the one meal of the day? Why?
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Women in the family could not eat with the members of the opposite sex and vice versa. Do what your mother and sisters said.
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How were women treated, even during the famine?
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For there mother to make cakes to sell at the markets.
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What was the intent of the family plan that required selling all of their food?
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They were teachers from Mtunthama school. She wasn't allowed to talk to boys her parents don't know.
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What was unusual about the two young men talking to William's sister?
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Annie packed her bags and got married to one of the teachers. He spent all that money during the famine to keep Annie in school.
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What happened to her? Why was William's father angry?
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Her absence ment a little more food during dinner at every meal.
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Though they didn't admit it, what benefit was this to the family?
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People smelled bad, people were exchanging there spots in line for a little maize on the way out, people were impatient and began pushing, after they announced there were only ten bags left people began fighting.
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Describe the conditions of William's trip to get grain from the ADMARC?
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Breakfast didn't have all the food he was used to. He didn't eat any meat like always. The christmas show was canceled. He and his cousin Charity got an animal skin from James and they ate the meat off the skin.
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What was different about this Christmas? What did William do? What did he eat?
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That the National Examinations Board released the results of the Standard Eight exams.
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What great news is better than any Christmas present
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He hoped to go to Chayamba or Kasungu. He got into Kachokolo. His grades were not good enough.
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Where did William hope to get in? Where did he end up getting in? Why?
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His new school was five kilometers away from his house. The road was filled with mud and insects.
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As he got ready to go to school, what was the problem he had?
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That William was didn't have the proper shoes for his uniform. He said he lived in Wimbe and on the way the mud would destroy his good lather shoes and his mother would not like that.
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What problem did the headmaster have with him immediately when he arrived? What excuse did William have?
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The roofs leaked, Three classrooms were missing a wall and the latrines were disgusting and dangerous with termites had eaten through the floor planks.
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Describe the conditions of the school: the rooms, the latrines, etc.
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The next dat the grace period was over or your tuition was due. His father had not paid his fees and didn't have enough money.
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What announcement about the tuition greatly disappointed William?
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Only 20 remained.
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Out of 70 students, how many remained at the school?
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Peoples bodies changed into horrible shapes, they ate anything eatable they could find on the ground, just came up and ate other people's food, No one had energy.
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Describe the conditions of the famine that William witnessed?
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He siad nobody has died of hunger.
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What did the president say when asked about people dying for lack of food?
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Every man for himself.
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This much was certain: "Every ______ for ______.
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Khamba fell into a deep sleep. The hunt took all his energy.
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What is the result of the hunt with Khamba?
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His cousin Charity and Mizeck, Because Khamba looked weak and pathetic. They suggested to kill him. they did it by hitting him with a stone.
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Who helps William "take care of" Khamba? Why did he suggest this? How did they do it?
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When Khamba saw William leave he had given up his will to live.
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What terrible thought did William have when he saw Khamba again?
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If you only think about hunger you will get stressed and burn more energy and cause your body to suffer more.
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According to William's mother, why should they think about positive things and not hunger or food?
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Men were the ones who forged for food and burned energy that would not be able to be restored. Cholera didn't discriminate.
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Why did hunger seem to take only the men, while the other diseases did not discriminate?
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Corn
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Dowe is the equivalent of American _________________________.
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They would kill or get revenge on the thieves. His father just forgave them.
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According to those in the market, what did they do to thieves who stole dowe? What was William's father's reaction?
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To the trading center and played games like bawo or chess.
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William played games and went where to occupy his mind?
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They were geography, social studies, and basic spelling. They were all the text books that his friends at school were using. Because he hoped to get caught up before classes started again.
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What were the first books that he obtained? Why?
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The bicycle dynamo.
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When William learns about a turbine, he immediately connected it to what he knew about__________.
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Radio's
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He knew about magnets because of his work with ___________.
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The north side attracts to the south side and vice versa and the north side would not attract to the other north side and same thing with the south
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How do the poles of a magnet interact?
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The North side of the magnet will always be pulled towards the north pole and vice versa.
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Why is the earth a kind of giant magnet?
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It happens when a coil of wire rotates inside a magnetic field, it will produce a pulse of current and it produces AC.
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What is electromagnetic induction?
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Alternating current.
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Most electricity in the home, from a power station, is AC, like the kind from the bicycle dynamo. What does AC stand for?
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He used a lot of mirrors to reflect the sun onto enemy ships until they caught fire and sank.
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According to the story, how did Archimedes create a "death ray" in ancient times?
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He had to find them in the Kachokolo's abandoned garage an scrapyard.
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Where did William get the parts for his windmill?
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Some people had died of hunger form the famine. He was more behind on his studies than his other classmates. They were studying different thing then him.
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When William returns to school, what has changed? How is he compared to his classmates?
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He had to calculate his movements to avoid W.M. Phiri. Had to hide in the bathroom and peak through a tiny window.
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How did he manage to obtain "free" education for several weeks?
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Because boys needed to go to school to get a good job and his father didn't have enough money to keep him in school.
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Why did his father say he failed his only son?
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His father.
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Who did William have to convince, reluctantly, to give over his broken bicycle?
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The scrapyard.
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Where did William say he learned something each day?
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A madman, the crazy boy in the scrapyard and a Chamba-smoking madman.
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What did the students across the street in the schoolyard call him?
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Gilbert.
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Who was the only person who didn't laugh at him?
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Gilbert bought it.
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Who bought the dynamo, the final piece, from a boy on a bike?
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When the blades on the windmill spun the radio played. Black smoke poured out of the radio and it caught on fire. the dynamo produced 12 volts and the radio was only meant to handle half of that.
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How did William know that the windmill worked? What happened when he first connected a radio? Why?
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That what he was doing was imposable and he is crazy.
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When people saw the tower, they came to see. What did they say about him?
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They praised him and were amazed that he did that. The crowd begin to cheer, and clapped
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How did people respond when the light lit up?
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As a clothing line.
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What was Charity using the copper wire for when William saw it?
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To put lights in his room.
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The first thing William did with the wire was: ____________________?
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It could be used to pump water for our fields.
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According to William, how could the windmill be a shield without hunger?
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When there was no wind.
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One of the problems with the windmill was that it didn't work when _________.
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He charged peoples phones for money.
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How did William start to make money with the windmill?
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A step-up transformer.
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The 12 volts for the dynamo was enough for a light bulb, but not enough for a phone. He needed to add ______________________.
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Mutual induction.
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The power is boosted by a process called mutual _________________.
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Michael Faraday.
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The first transformer was produced by Michael ____________________.
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Diodes or rectifiers which are found in many radios and electronic devices and convert the power for you.
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The windmill produced AC power. The car battery was DC power. What did he need?
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He used bicycle spokes, strips of iron and cut a button shape out of an old flip flop.
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What materials did William use to make light switches in his house?
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If the wires sparked his wood and grass roof could catch on fire.
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What was the danger with his wiring and his wood and grass roof?
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He used the termites to lure in a group of passing chickens to eat the termites.
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When termites infested his room, how did he clean them up?
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A circuit breaker contained wires which led to the main power supply and was used to kill the power when the circuits became overloaded. He used a breaker box that he made out of melted PVC pipe, two nails wrapped with wires, a bar magnet attached to a bicycle spoke and a spring.
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What is a circuit breaker? What does it do? How did William make one?
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He learned about them from Gilbert's work experience. He used the pulleys to replace the bike chain on the windmill that keeps the blades from flying off.
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How did William learn about pulleys that he used to solve his problem?
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Using the windmill as a transmitter. It broadcasted beyond three hundred feet.
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The next thing they experimented with was _________________________. How far did the signal travel?
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The water pump because he wanted to bring water to drink and to water crops without going a long way for it. And he wanted to use solar and hydro power to boil water to help his mom with the cooking. They are all to help his parents.
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What other projects did he explore and why? What do they all have in common?
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They are vomiting, shaking high fever, heavy breathing and lose of feeling in legs. William's mom had it.
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What are the symptoms of malaria, and who had them?
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It was held in the yard of the primary school underneath the big blue gums.
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Where did they have the funeral for Gilbert's father, the chief?
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Because William built the windmill.
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Instead of blaming weather for the drought, people blame magic. Why did they blame William?
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People there thought witches were real and a problem. People thought that William was a witch.
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Why do you think the authors include the serious accounts of witchcraft that were in the news?
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The government lowered the price of fertilizer coupons so people could afford them. Many local leaders hoarded them and sold them to people with the most money instead of farmers.
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What sort of change does the new president of Malawi begin? How did local corruption undermine this plan?
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Because they thought his windmill blew away the rain clouds.
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According to William, why did people who understood the windmill and charge his phone still blame him?
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The wizards took advantage of people who didn't know better about the sickness and coned them.
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William says people died from AIDS due to stubbornness and lack of education. What role did "magic men" and "wizards" play in this?
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They persuaded people by a play presented by Wimbe clinic.
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How did William and his friends persuade people to get tested for AIDS, which he describes as as deadly as famine?
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Officials from Malawi Teachers Training Activity who were inspecting the library at Wimbe primary when they spotted the windmill. They told there boss Hartford Mchazime.
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How did William's windmill first get "noticed" by outsiders?
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People saw his house, got in a lot of the papers and people now knew how smart he was.
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What benefits came from the media attention?
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Mr. Mchazime wanted to send him back to school. And he is going to boarding school that specifies in science.
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How did his notoriety improve his educational opportunities?
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He never cleaned his socks.
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What was quirky about Kennedy, his roommate?
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Soyapi Mumba the software engineer.
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Who does William sit next to on the plane on the way to the TED conference?
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Tom Rielly gave him a flash drive with his presentation. He taught William how to use the computer, the internet and helped him set up his own email account. He helped him prepare what to say for his speech.
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Multiple people help William at TED. Who is especially helpful and how?
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He found results on types of energy.
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How did the World Wide Web change William's opportunities?
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Because William saved his family from destruction.
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Why did his family call him Noah?
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In New York what impressed him was the elevator that took him higher then he has ever been, how many lanes the roads had. In California what impressed him was the blinking lights, spilled money and sounds of sirens.
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While in the U.S., William visits New York and California. What impresses him about each?
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Maybe go back to school or study new machines, Teach others how to build machines, build more windmills to provide other things for his family.
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According to William, what will he do next?
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His windmill.
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About what project did William inform the president of Malawi?
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He has to replace one of the blades on his windmill because they brake off
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What does William seem to do every time he's home?
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At his new school the African Leadership Academy.
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Where does William finally feel like he is surrounded by colleagues with the same motivations as his?
