Gabriel García Márquez

Gabriel García Márquez Study questions

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Facts about Gabriel García Márquez

➾ Gabriel García Márquez did not meet his mother until he was almost eight years old.

➾ He derived his rich, pungent writing style directly from the storytelling mannerisms of his grandmother.

➾ He quit law school because he felt that the study of law “had nothing to do with justice”.

➾ As a reporter, he once staged a fake rebellion using sirens and drums in a remote jungle village to create a news story.

➾ An exposé he wrote on a shipwrecked sailor revealed that the naval destroyer had been carrying black market goods, which deeply embarrassed the government.

➾ He rewrote his novel No One Writes to the Colonel a remarkable eleven times.

➾ During extreme poverty in Paris, he sustained himself by re-boiling chicken bones to make daily broth.

➾ His hotel landlord trusted him enough to allow him to accumulate massive debt because they saw him constantly writing in his room.

➾ He later reflected that his three years of poverty taught him that “nobody dies of hunger” and one is capable of sleeping under bridges.

➾ He worked for a magazine sometimes nicknamed Venezuela Pornografica and stated that he read and believed all the gossip within.

➾ After experiencing writer’s block, he broke it by turning his family car around and barricading himself at home for 15 months to write One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Gabriel García Márquez MCQs

1. What is the full name of the author, born March 6, 1928?

A. Gabo Jimenez
B. Gabriel José García Márquez
C. Luis Alejandro Velasco
D. William Faulkner

B. Gabriel José García Márquez
This is his full birth name, though he is often known by his affectionate nickname, Gabo.

2. What is one of the common nicknames Gabriel García Márquez is known by?

A. Gabby
B. Gabito
C. Colonel
D. Maestro

B. Gabito
“Gabito” (or “Gabo”) was a popular and affectionate nickname used for him throughout Latin America.

3. In which Colombian village was Gabriel García Márquez born?

A. Sucre
B. Macondo
C. Bogotá
D. Aracataca

D. Aracataca
He was born in Aracataca, which became the real-life inspiration for the fictional town of Macondo.

4. In which year did Gabriel García Márquez die?

A. 1982
B. 1999
C. 2012
D. 2014

D. 2014
He died of pneumonia at the age of 87 in Mexico City.

5. What was the immediate cause of Gabriel García Márquez’s death?

A. Lymphatic cancer
B. Dementia
C. Pneumonia
D. Heart failure

C. Pneumonia
Though he suffered from cancer and dementia, his death in 2014 was attributed to pneumonia.

6. García Márquez was diagnosed with what type of cancer in 1999?

A. Lung
B. Lymphatic
C. Bone
D. Skin

B. Lymphatic
He was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 1999 but recovered following treatment.

7. What was García Márquez reported to be suffering from in 2012?

A. A severe infection
B. Paralysis
C. Dementia
D. Writer’s block

C. Dementia
In 2012, his brother announced that García Márquez was suffering from dementia.

8. What is considered García Márquez’s first serious writing or novella, published in 1955?

A. The Evil Hour
B. Big Mama’s Funeral
C. Leaf Storm (La Hojarasca)
D. The Colonel

C. Leaf Storm (La Hojarasca)
Leaf Storm was his first novella and the first work to introduce the fictional town of Macondo.

9. Which novel, published in 1985, is described as his second most well-known work?

A. The Autumn of the Patriarch
B. Chronicle of a Death Foretold
C. Love in the Time of Cholera
D. Leaf Storm

C. Love in the Time of Cholera
After One Hundred Years of Solitude, this is his most celebrated novel.

10. Who raised García Márquez for the first ten years of his life?

A. His father
B. His mother
C. His maternal grandparents
D. Fidel Castro

C. His maternal grandparents
He was raised by his maternal grandparents, who had a profound influence on his storytelling.

11. García Márquez credited his grandmother with providing the foundation for what aspect of his work?

A. His political views
B. His financial stability
C. His pungent style
D. His love of cinema

C. His pungent style
His grandmother’s “pungent style” of telling fantastic stories matter-of-factly inspired magical realism.

12. The author’s grandfather became the model for what archetype character in his fiction?

A. The Seaman
B. The Dictator
C. The Colonel
D. The Telegraph Operator

C. The Colonel
His grandfather, a veteran of the War of a Thousand Days, became the model for the recurring colonel archetype.

13. What traumatic Colombian civil war did García Márquez’s grandfather participate in?

A. La Violencia
B. The War of a Thousand Days
C. The Cuban Revolution
D. The Spanish Civil War

B. The War of a Thousand Days
His grandfather was a colonel in this devastating civil war, a recurring theme in his novels.

14. The village of Aracataca is the real-life inspiration for what fictional town?

A. Sucre
B. Cartagena
C. Cienaga
D. Macondo

D. Macondo
Macondo, the setting of One Hundred Years of Solitude, is based on his childhood home of Aracataca.

15. What US company established a banana headquarters in Aracataca, leading to massacres?

A. Standard Oil
B. The United Fruit Company
C. Chiquita Brands
D. Wells Fargo

B. The United Fruit Company
The 1928 “Banana Massacre” by this company became a key event in One Hundred Years of Solitude.

16. When did García Márquez first publish short stories?

A. 1955
B. 1967
C. 1947 while a student
D. 1970

C. 1947 while a student
He began his literary career publishing short stories in newspapers while he was a student.

17. After abandoning his higher studies, what profession did García Márquez fully commit to?

A. Film direction
B. Pharmacy
C. Journalism
D. Political activism

C. Journalism
He dropped out of law school to become a journalist, a profession that deeply shaped his writing style.

18. What newspaper column did García Márquez write for El Heraldo in Barranquilla?

A. El Espectador
B. La Hojarasca
C. La Jirafa
D. El Pueblo

C. “La Jirafa”
He wrote a regular column called “La Jirafa” (The Giraffe) under the name “Septimus.”

19. Which literary quality characterized García Márquez’s early journalistic writings?

A. Academic formality
B. Irony and mordant humor
C. Pure naturalism
D. Excessive pathos

B. Irony and mordant humor
His early columns were known for their biting humor and ironic observations.

20. García Márquez preferred to cover what type of stories as a reporter for El Espectador?

A. Editorials
B. Foreign correspondence
C. Fires and crimes
D. Political analysis

C. Fires and crimes
He preferred covering the “police beat” and sensational stories, like fires and crimes.

21. The fabricated rebellion story in Quibdo was staged to protest what?

A. Government corruption
B. The correspondent’s assignment
C. Censorship
D. The price of bananas

B. The correspondent’s assignment
He staged the story out of boredom and frustration with his assignment in the remote town.

22. What did the sailor Luis Alejandro Velasco reveal that embarrassed the Rojas Pinilla government?

A. The storm was fabricated
B. The destroyer carried black market goods
C. The sailor was a spy
D. The storm hit in New Orleans

B. The destroyer carried black market goods
Velasco revealed the shipwreck was due to contraband, not a storm, embarrassing the dictatorship.

23. When was The Tale of A Shipwrecked Sailor first published under García Márquez’s name?

A. 1954
B. 1966
C. 1970
D. 1982

C. 1970
Though written as a newspaper series in 1955, it was first published in book form in 1970.

24. Which of his novels was García Márquez rewriting eleven times while stuck jobless in Paris?

A. Leaf Storm
B. The Evil Hour
C. One Hundred Years of Solitude
D. No One Writes to the Colonel

D. No One Writes to the Colonel
He wrote this novella, a masterpiece of conciseness, during a period of extreme poverty in Paris.

25. What was García Márquez’s first novel focused on the theme of violence?

A. La Hojarasca
B. La Mala Hora (The Evil Hour)
C. El Coronel
D. Cien años de soledad

B. La Mala Hora (The Evil Hour)
This novel was his first to directly confront the theme of *La Violencia*, the political violence in Colombia.

26. What conclusion did García Márquez reach after three years of poverty in Paris?

A. That he required political asylum
B. That he needed a US visa
C. That nobody dies of hunger
D. That he should stop writing

C. That nobody dies of hunger
His experience of extreme poverty in Paris gave him a sense of resilience and this philosophical conclusion.

27. Who was the fiancée and eventual wife of García Márquez, described as having a “beautiful neck”?

A. Luisa Santiaga
B. Pilar Ternera
C. Mercedes Barcha
D. Consuelo

C. Mercedes Barcha
He married Mercedes Barcha, his childhood sweetheart, in 1958.

28. García Márquez finished which short story collection while working in Caracas, Venezuela?

A. No One Writes to the Colonel
B. Big Mama’s Funeral
C. Leaf Storm
D. The Tale of A Shipwrecked Sailor

B. Big Mama’s Funeral
He completed this collection (Los funerales de la Mamá Grande) while living in Venezuela.

29. After the Cuban revolution, García Márquez opened the Bogotá office for what Cuban news agency?

A. El Espectador
B. Momento
C. Prensa Latina
D. Alternativa

C. Prensa Latina
His support for the revolution led him to help establish the Bogotá office for Cuba’s official news agency.

30. García Márquez’s political leanings, since his student days, are described as being what?

A. Liberal
B. Conservative
C. Revolutionary, even communist
D. Federalist

C. Revolutionary, even communist
He was a committed leftist and socialist his entire life, stemming from his student activism.

31. While representing Prensa Latina at the UN, what famous incident did García Márquez witness?

A. Castro’s long speech
B. Khruschev using his shoe as a gavel
C. The signing of a peace treaty
D. An assassination attempt

B. Khruschev using his shoe as a gavel
He was present for the infamous (and possibly apocryphal) incident of Khruschev banging his shoe.

32. García Márquez’s US visa was withdrawn around 1961 due to what reason?

A. Financial debt
B. His political leanings and association with Cuba
C. Criminal activities
D. A dispute with immigration officials

B. His political leanings and association with Cuba
His left-wing politics and friendship with Castro made him a target of the US government.

33. García Márquez traveled through the US Deep South by bus as an homage to which writer?

A. Ben Hecht
B. Ernest Hemingway
C. John Steinbeck
D. William Faulkner

D. William Faulkner
He deeply admired Faulkner and traveled through his territory, the American South, by Greyhound bus.

34. What period of intense political violence and repression in Colombia occurred around 1948?

A. The Banana Massacre
B. The War of a Thousand Days
C. La Violencia
D. The Latin Boom

C. La Violencia
“La Violencia” (The Violence) was a brutal ten-year civil war that became a major theme in his work.

35. Who was the famed Mexican novelist with whom García Márquez collaborated on screenplays?

A. Julio Cortázar
B. Jorge Rojas
C. Carlos Fuentes
D. Juan Ramon Jimenez

C. Carlos Fuentes
He formed a close friendship with Fuentes, and they worked together on several film projects in Mexico.

36. What did García Márquez realize he lacked working on film scripts compared to novels?

A. Sufficient money
B. Technical expertise
C. The writer’s complete control over the work
D. Critical acclaim

C. The writer’s complete control over the work
He felt that in filmmaking, the writer’s vision was diluted by the collaborative process.

37. García Márquez experienced a four-year period of difficulty known as what, before writing his masterpiece?

A. Exile
B. Writer’s block
C. Political imprisonment
D. Journalism fatigue

B. Writer’s block
He suffered a severe writer’s block for four years before his breakthrough inspiration for his masterpiece.

38. While driving from Mexico City to Acapulco, García Márquez began planning which masterpiece?

A. The Evil Hour
B. Chronicle of a Death Foretold
C. One Hundred Years of Solitude
D. Love in the Time of Cholera

C. One Hundred Years of Solitude
He had a sudden flash of inspiration for the novel while on this drive, ending his writer’s block.

39. Approximately how long did García Márquez work on writing One Hundred Years of Solitude?

A. Six months
B. Eighteen months
C. Three years
D. Ten years

B. Eighteen months
He locked himself away for 18 months, writing in a haze of creative energy to complete the novel.

40. In which year was One Hundred Years of Solitude first published in Spanish (Cien años de soledad)?

A. 1961
B. 1967
C. 1970
D. 1982

B. 1967
The novel was an immediate and massive success upon its 1967 publication in Buenos Aires.

41. Which Argentinean writer, alongside Carlos Fuentes, was an early supporter of Cien Años de Soledad?

A. Jorge Luis Borges
B. Julio Cortázar
C. Pablo Neruda
D. Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza

B. Julio Cortázar
Julio Cortázar, a major figure of the “Latin Boom,” was an important early champion of the novel.

42. Who was the translator who rendered One Hundred Years of Solitude into English?

A. William Kennedy
B. Gregory Rabassa
C. Ben Hecht
D. Luisa Santiaga

B. Gregory Rabassa
Rabassa’s 1970 translation was highly acclaimed by García Márquez himself as a work of art.

43. What term describes the rise in popularity of Latin-American writing in the 1960s and 1970s?

A. The New Wave
B. The Latin Boom
C. Modernism
D. Postmodernism

B. The Latin Boom
His novel was a central work of the “Latin Boom,” which brought global attention to Latin American authors.

44. One Hundred Years of Solitude is considered a central work in which literary movement?

A. Postmodernism
B. Naturalism
C. Magical realism
D. Existentialism

C. Magical realism
The novel is the most famous example of magical realism, blending the fantastic with the mundane.

45. In 1973, following the assassination of Salvador Allende, García Márquez co-founded which left-wing magazine?

A. El Espectador
B. Prensa Latina
C. Alternativa
D. Momento

C. Alternativa
He co-founded this political magazine in Colombia in response to the coup in Chile.

46. What novel, published in 1975, focused on the theme of dictatorship and power?

A. Love in the Time of Cholera
B. The Autumn of the Patriarch
C. Chronicle of a Death Foretold
D. The Evil Hour

B. The Autumn of the Patriarch
This dense, experimental novel is a portrait of an archetypal Caribbean dictator, isolated by absolute power.

47. García Márquez established a personal relationship with which Cuban leader?

A. Che Guevara
B. Fidel Castro
C. Omar Torrijos
D. Salvador Allende

B. Fidel Castro
His controversial and long-standing friendship with Fidel Castro often drew criticism from the West.

48. In which year was García Márquez awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature?

A. 1967
B. 1970
C. 1981
D. 1982

D. 1982
He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his novels and short stories, which combined the fantastic and realistic.

49. García Márquez claimed that the atmosphere of his books is the atmosphere of what stage of life?

A. Old age
B. Journalism
C. Childhood
D. Adulthood

C. Childhood
He stated that his style was based on his grandmother’s way of telling stories, rooted in his childhood.

50. In his Nobel lecture, García Márquez expressed belief in the possibility of creating what?

A. Scientific advancement
B. Eternal solitude
C. The opposite utopia
D. Universal warfare

C. The opposite utopia
He concluded his lecture with a powerful call for a “new and sweeping utopia of life.”

One Hundred Years of Solitude MCQs

1. What memory haunted Colonel Aureliano Buendía facing the firing squad?

A. Discovering ice
B. Macondo’s founding
C. Melquíades’ death
D. Aureliano José

A. Discovering ice.
Colonel Aureliano Buendía always remembered the distant afternoon his father first showed him the mystery of ice.

2. Macondo was initially a village of how many adobe houses?

A. Twenty-six
B. Fifty
C. Twenty
D. Seven

C. Twenty.
Macondo, at the time of Colonel Aureliano Buendía’s memory, was a village consisting of just twenty adobe houses.

3. What did the first gypsíes bring to Macondo?

A. Magnifying glass
B. A telescope
C. A flying carpet
D. A magnet

D. A magnet.
Every March, gypsíes led by Melquíades would arrive and display new inventions, starting with the heavy magnet.

4. What did José Arcadio Buendía trade for the magnets?

A. Gold coins
B. Mule and goats
C. His house
D. The laboratory

B. Mule and goats.
Believing he could extract gold, José Arcadio Buendía traded his mule and a pair of goats for the ingots.

5. What ancient object was unearthed by the magnets?

A. Gold coins
B. Spanish sword
C. Fifteenth-century armor
D. Caladium roots

C. Fifteenth-century armor.
José Arcadio Buendía’s attempt to extract gold only succeeded in unearthing a suit of old armor.

6. What new invention did the gypsíes bring in their second trip?

A. Telescope and ice
B. Magnifying glass
C. Telegraph equipment
D. Astrolabe

B. Magnifying glass.
The gypsíes returned with a telescope and a gigantic magnifying glass, advertised as the discovery of the Jews of Amsterdam.

7. José Arcadio Buendía tried to use the magnifying glass as what?

A. A cooking tool
B. A weapon of war
C. A mining tool
D. A scientific aid

B. A weapon of war.
José Arcadio Buendía conceived the idea of employing the concentrated sun’s rays from the glass as a weapon.

8. What did José Arcadio Buendía reveal to his children about the Earth?

A. It is eternal
B. It is like an orange
C. It is flat
D. It has an axis

B. It is like an orange.
After months of speculation and solitary vigil, José Arcadio Buendía declared, “The earth is round, like an orange”.

9. What condition afflicted Melquíades when he returned to validate the Earth theory?

A. Tenacious illness
B. Blindness
C. Deafness
D. Insanity

A. Tenacious illness.
Melquíades had aged surprisingly fast, worn down by multiple and rare diseases contracted on his innumerable trips.

10. What gift did Melquíades give José Arcadio Buendía as proof of admiration?

A. Gold coins
B. Philosopher’s stone
C. Alchemy laboratory
D. Astrolabe

C. Alchemy laboratory.
Melquíades, impressed by the astronomical theory, gave him the rudimentary laboratory of an alchemist.

11. What resulted from José Arcadio Buendía’s attempt to double Úrsula’s gold?

A. Pure gold
B. A philosopher’s stone
C. Hog cracklings
D. Valuable syrup

C. Hog cracklings.
Úrsula’s precious inheritance, mixed with various metals and boiled, was reduced to burnt hog cracklings.

12. What feature made Melquíades look perpetually young on a subsequent visit?

A. New hat
B. False teeth
C. New clothes
D. Gold ring

B. False teeth.
The gypsíes displayed a youthful Melquíades who showed the audience that his intact teeth were removable false teeth.

13. What animals were prohibited in José Arcadio Buendía’s home and the entire settlement?

A. Monkeys
B. Pigs
C. Goats
D. Fighting cocks

D. Fighting cocks.
The only animals that were prohibited, not just in the house but in the entire settlement, were fighting cocks.

14. Why did the northern expedition stop after finding the enormous Spanish galleon?

A. Ran out food
B. Lost weapons
C. José Arcadio Buendía turned back
D. Surrounded by water

D. Surrounded by water.
José Arcadio Buendía realized after finding the galleon that Macondo was completely surrounded by water.

15. What reason did Úrsula give for staying in Macondo?

A. Loved the place
B. They had a son there
C. Too tired to move
D. Feared the unknown

B. They had a son there.
Úrsula told her husband they would stay in Macondo because they had already had a son in that place.

16. What distinguished Aureliano’s birth from his older brother José Arcadio?

A. Wept in the womb
B. Born silently
C. Was robust
D. Born with tail

A. Wept in the womb.
Úrsula gave birth to Aureliano, the first person born in Macondo, who had wept while still in her womb.

17. What did the gypsíes bring in the distant afternoon, Aureliano remembers, before the firing squad?

A. A magnet
B. Flying carpet
C. Ice
D. Telescope

C. Ice.
Colonel Aureliano Buendía would remember the distant afternoon his father took him to discover ice.

18. Why did Úrsula Iguarán’s great-great-grandmother fear Sir Francis Drake?

A. He was violent
B. He burned her
C. Feared the sea
D. Feared pirates

B. He burned her.
During Drake’s attack on Riohacha, she became so terrified that she sat on a lighted stove.

19. What fear led Úrsula and José Arcadio Buendía’s relatives to oppose their marriage?

A. Poverty
B. Family rivalry
C. Pig’s tail offspring
D. Age difference

C. Pig’s tail offspring.
They feared the incestuous relation of cousins would result in a child born with a cartilaginous pig’s tail.

20. Who did José Arcadio Buendía kill for insulting Úrsula?

A. Melquíades
B. Apolinar Moscote
C. Prudencio Aguilar
D. Colonel Aureliano

C. Prudencio Aguilar.
José Arcadio Buendía stabbed Prudencio Aguilar in the throat with a spear for his rude comments.

21. How did José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula try to pacify Prudencio Aguilar’s ghost?

A. Gave him money
B. Left the town
C. Said prayers
D. Built a shrine

B. Left the town.
Haunted by the ghost of Prudencio Aguilar, they decided to undertake the crossing of the mountains.

22. After the long mountain crossing, what made José Arcadio Buendía decide to found Macondo?

A. Found the sea
B. A vivid dream
C. Ran out of food
D. Úrsula demanded it

B. A vivid dream.
He had a dream of a noisy city with houses having mirror walls, which he named Macondo.

23. What activity occupied José Arcadio while his father studied alchemy?

A. Cockfighting
B. Silverwork
C. Going to sea
D. Pilar Ternera

D. Pilar Ternera.
While his father focused on the laboratory, José Arcadio was preoccupied with pursuing Pilar Ternera.

24. What sensation did Aureliano feel when his brother described the mechanism of love?

A. Like an earthquake
B. Painful
C. Like fever
D. Terrible joy

A. Like an earthquake.
Aureliano asked his brother José Arcadio what love felt like, and he replied, “It’s like an earthquake”.

25. What did Pilar Ternera reveal to José Arcadio?

A. She was leaving
B. She was pregnant
C. His father knew
D. She loved him

B. She was pregnant.
Pilar Ternera, stimulated by José Arcadio’s enthusiasm, told him straightforwardly that he was going to be a father.

26. Why did José Arcadio leave Macondo suddenly?

A. Joined the army
B. Followed gypsíes
C. Went to sea
D. Hunted gold

B. Followed gypsíes.
José Arcadio, anxious and hostile after learning about the pregnancy, left to mingle with the gypsíes.

27. What did Úrsula find instead of the gypsíes during her search?

A. Riohacha
B. The sea
C. Another town
D. A new route

D. A new route.
Úrsula missed the gypsíes, but she discovered a commercial route to other towns across the swamp.

28. What was the name of Pilar Ternera’s son (José Arcadio’s illegitimate child)?

A. Aureliano José
B. Arcadio
C. José Arcadio
D. Aureliano

B. Arcadio.
The child was given the name José Arcadio but was called Arcadio to prevent household confusion.

29. How did the Buendía family acquire the girl named Rebeca?

A. Úrsula found her
B. She was sent by letter
C. She arrived on the train
D. She followed gypsíes

B. She was sent by letter.
Rebeca arrived with a letter claiming kinship and carrying the remains of her deceased parents for burial.

30. What unnatural habit did Rebeca have when she arrived?

A. Eating mud
B. Eating spiders
C. Drinking wine
D. Speaking Guajiro

A. Eating mud.
Rebeca only liked to secretly eat the damp earth of the courtyard and the whitewash from the walls.

31. According to Visitación, what was the most feared symptom of the insomnia plague?

A. Fatigue
B. Loss of dreams
C. Loss of memory
D. Fever

C. Loss of memory.
The Indian woman feared that the insomnia would inevitably evolve toward an irreversible state of memory loss.

32. What phrase did the narrator constantly repeat in the endless game used by insomniacs?

A. Want a joke
B. Ask a question
C. About the capon
D. You are sleeping

C. About the capon.
The endless game used to pass the time involved continually asking whether they wanted him to tell the story about the capon.

33. What successful method did Aureliano devise to combat the loss of memory?

A. Herbal brew
B. Writing signs
C. Singing songs
D. Reading poems

B. Writing signs.
Aureliano devised the system of marking everything with its name and explanation to preserve memory.

34. How was José Arcadio Buendía’s memory restored?

A. Reading
B. Melquíades’ potion
C. Úrsula’s help
D. Waking up

B. Melquíades’ potion.
Melquíades reappeared and gave José Arcadio Buendía a drink of gentle color which restored his memory.

35. Why did Melquíades decide to stay in Macondo?

A. Start a war
B. Start a business
C. Couldn’t bear solitude
D. Waiting for Úrsula

C. Couldn’t bear solitude.
The gŷpsy, having returned from death, decided to stay in Macondo because he could not bear the solitude.

36. What invention did Melquíades introduce upon his return that fascinated José Arcadio Buendía?

A. Daguerreotype
B. Pianola
C. Telescope
D. Telegraph

A. Daguerreotype.
Melquíades set up a daguerreotype laboratory, an invention that left José Arcadio Buendía mute with stupefaction.

37. What material did Colonel Aureliano Buendía manufacture in his workshop?

A. Silver tools
B. Gold fish
C. Copper rings
D. Iron hinges

B. Goldfish.
Aureliano was an expert silversmith, known for the delicacy of the little gold fishes he manufactured.

38. What was the name of the magistrate appointed to Macondo?

A. Pietro Crespi
B. Apolinar Moscote
C. Nicanor Reyna
D. Victor Hugues

B. Apolinar Moscote.
Don Apolinar Moscote was a timid man who arrived, set up an office, and proclaimed himself the town’s magistrate.

39. What instrument did Pietro Crespi arrive in Macondo to assemble?

A. Guitar
B. Zither
C. Pianola
D. Accordion

C. Pianola.
Pietro Crespi, the young Italian expert, arrived to assemble and tune the magnificent pianola.

40. What was Rebeca’s shameful habit when despairing over Pietro Crespi?

A. Smoking
B. Eating earth
C. Drinking
D. Writing letters

B. Eating earth.
In desperation over the delayed wedding, Rebeca began eating handfuls of earth again with a suicidal drive.

41. Who did Aureliano first consummate a sexual relationship with, relieving his frustration?

A. Remedios
B. Amaranta
C. Pilar Ternera
D. Matron

C. Pilar Ternera.
Aureliano sought out Pilar Ternera, who kindly cleaned and comforted him before they made love.

42. What was the main condition for Aureliano’s marriage to Remedios Moscote?

A. She converts
B. Rebeca married Crespi
C. End the war
D. Build a church

B. Rebeca married Crespi.
José Arcadio Buendía conditioned his approval of Aureliano’s marriage on Rebeca marrying Pietro Crespi.

43. Why was Aureliano’s wedding to Remedios postponed initially?

A. Remedios was ill
B. Pietro Crespi’s mother died
C. She hadn’t reached puberty
D. Úrsula opposed it

C. She hadn’t reached puberty.
Aureliano had to wait because Señora Moscote confessed that Remedios had not yet reached puberty.

44. How did José Arcadio Buendía react to Melquíades’ burial?

A. Respected it
B. Burnt mercury
C. Shot at it
D. Forgot about it

B. Burnt mercury.
Believing Melquíades’ claim of immortality, José Arcadio Buendía burned mercury for three days beside the body.

45. Who murdered Pietro Crespi after being rejected by Amaranta?

A. Amaranta
B. José Arcadio
C. Himself
D. Rebeca

C. Himself.
After his final rejection by Amaranta, Pietro Crespi killed himself by cutting his wrists with a razor.

46. What mark did Amaranta carry until her death, symbolizing her guilt and self-punishment?

A. A black scapular
B. Black gauze bandage
C. A wooden cross
D. Black shoes

B. Black gauze bandage.
Amaranta deliberately burned her hand and wore a bandage of black gauze until she died.

47. How many armed uprisings did Colonel Aureliano Buendía organize and lose?

A. Twelve
B. Thirty-two
C. Seventeen
D. Five

B. Thirty-two.
Colonel Aureliano Buendía was known throughout his life for organizing and losing exactly thirty-two armed uprisings.

48. Who was Úrsula’s great-granddaughter, known for her disturbing and fatal beauty?

A. Amaranta Úrsula
B. Fernanda
C. Remedios the Beauty
D. Meme

C. Remedios the Beauty.
Remedios the Beauty inherited her mother’s purity and an incredible beauty that Úrsula found deeply disturbing.

49. What object did Aureliano Segundo paper the house with during a prosperous delirium?

A. Banana leaves
B. One-peso banknotes
C. Gold leaf
D. Old manuscripts

B. One-peso banknotes.
In a fit of generosity and good humor, Aureliano Segundo covered the house inside and out with banknotes.

50. What vision did Aureliano see when he finally deciphered Melquíades’ final words?

A. The end of Macondo
B. The pig’s tail
C. His own death
D. The first of the line tied to a tree

D. The first of the line was tied to a tree.
The final deciphered epigraph stated: “The first of the line is tied to a tree, and the ants are eating the last”.

Brief Overview

One Hundred Years of Solitude is a novel by Gabriel García Márquez. It was first published in 1967 and is a masterpiece of Magic Realism. The novel chronicles the history of the Buendía family over seven generations in the fictional Colombian town of Macondo.

The story begins with the founders, José Arcadio Buendía and his wife, Úrsula Iguarán. They found the village and constantly fear their family curse: having children born with a pig’s tail.

In the early years, Macondo is a remote and quiet place. Gypsíes, led by Melquíades, visit yearly, bringing new inventions like magnets and ice. José Arcadio Buendía becomes obsessed with science and philosophy, firmly believing the Earth is round.

Úrsula is the strong, determined matriarch who holds the family together. Their son, Colonel Aureliano Buendía, becomes a famous Liberal military man. He fights in 32 civil wars, which brings political conflict and violence to Macondo.

Later, foreigners arrived, establishing a banana company. This creates a period of prosperity, but also one marked by great cruelty. The town suffers a massacre when the army violently shoots striking workers. The family’s history repeats itself in devastating cycles.

In the end, the last Buendía is born with a pig’s tail. Aureliano, the last surviving member, finally deciphers secret parchments left by Melquíades. These parchments reveal the entire history of the family and predict the destruction of Macondo once the last parchment is read.