(UFRGS - 2019)Obi was away in England for a little

(UFRGS - 2019)

Obi was away in England for a little under
four years. He sometimes found it difficult to
believe that it was as short as that. It seemed
more like a decade than four years, which
[5] with the miseries of winter when his longing
to return home took on the sharpness of
physical pain. It was in England that Nigeria
first became more than just a name to him.
That was the first great thing that England did
[10] for him. But the Nigeria he returned to was in
many ways different from the picture he had
carried in his mind during those four years.
There were many things he could no longer
recognize, and others — like the slums of
[15] Lagos — which he was seeing for the first
time.
As a boy in the village of Umuofia, he had
heard his first stories about Lagos from a
soldier home …….. leave from the war. Those
[20] soldiers were heroes who had seen the great
world. They spoke of Abyssinia, Egypt,
Palestine, Burma and so on. Some of them
had been village ne'er-do-wells, but now they
were heroes. They had bags and bags of
[25] money, and the villagers sat …….. their feet
to listen to their stories. One of them went
regularly to a market in the neighbouring
village and helped himself to whatever he
liked. He went in full uniform, breaking the
[30] earth with his boots, and no one dared touch
him. It was said that if you touched a soldier,
Government would deal with you. Besides,
soldiers were as strong as lions because of
the injections they were given …….. the army.
[35] It was from one of these soldiers that Obi had
his first picture of Lagos.
‘There is no darkness there,' he told his
admiring listeners, `because at night the
electric shines like the sun, and people are
[40] always walking about, that is, those who want
to walk. If you don't want to walk, you only
have to wave your hand and a pleasure car
stops for you.' His audience made sounds of
wonderment. Then by way of digression he
[45] said: 'If you see a white man, take off your
hat for him. The only thing he cannot do is
mould a human being.'

ACHEBE, Chinua. No Longer at Ease. New York / London: Everyman’s Library, 2010. p. 162.

Assinale a alternativa que apresenta reescrita adequada, em discurso indireto, para a frase Then by way of digression he said: 'If you see a white man, take off your hat for him' (l. 44-46).