Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist. He had a title of chieftain of Igbo tribe and wrote novels about its customs. That was portrayed as sophisticated, passed down through generations.
Westerners may mistaken them as ‘primitive and savage’. But Achebe showed Igbo people's rich cultural background through his narrations. Igbo proverbs, ‘the art of conversation", were frequently quoted in his novels.
The non-violent nature of Igbo was demonstrated by events like the peaceful agreement with the Mbaino tribe during a murder in Igbo by a Mbaino man.
The subordinate clause here is A, "as the layers of ash slowly compressed". Subordinate means that it cannot exist on its own, it has to be a part of the main, independent clause.
a: the government created the system on its own.
China originally planned to develop to what it called a Golden Shield surveillance system giving easy access to local,regional and national records of each citizen.
An invitation to the prince's ball arrives.
The narrator, is the protagonist and she starts explaining that she is a teenager. She knows what the latest styles are, she reads the current editorials, she listens to the radio... She wants us to know that she is not a silly girl. In fact, she is a rational thinker. But in fact, when the boy takes her hand and invite her to the sakiting rink, she abandons all her rationality and she believes when he says that he will call her. When days pass by and he doesn't, she says " I'm not so really dumb".
All that, indicates the conflict: she is a sixteen year old, naive and soft in character behind that tough exterior.