That year the harvest was sad, like a funeral, and many farmers wept as they dug up the miserable yams. One…

Step 1: Analyze the question The question asks for the mood of the passage. Mood is the feeling or atmosphere a piece of writing creates for the reader. It is built through word choice, imagery, and the events described.

Step 2: Explain the concept To identify mood, look for:

• Descriptive words (adjectives and adverbs)
• Similes and metaphors
• Events and actions of the characters

Step 3: Work through the passage

• "the harvest was sad": the narrator states the feeling directly.
• "like a funeral": this simile compares the harvest to a funeral, an occasion of mourning.
• "many farmers wept": this shows grief in the characters' actions.
• "the miserable yams": the word "miserable" shows the poor quality of the crop and the despair around it.
• "One man... hanged himself": this extreme event shows deep hopelessness.

Every clue points to sorrow and despair. This passage is from Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, where a failed harvest brings great suffering to the farmers.

Step 4: Check the options

• A. Excitement: wrong, no one is thrilled.
• B. Sadness: matches the clues.
• C. Joy: wrong, it is the opposite of weeping and a funeral.
• D. Triumph: wrong, there is no victory in the passage.

Answer: B. Sadness

Exam tip: For mood questions, find the emotional words and images in the passage, then match the overall feeling to the options. Here the passage even uses the word "sad" and a funeral simile, so you can eliminate the positive options (A, C, D) quickly.