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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What kind of hat does Tariq wear as they watch the last Soviet convoys leave the city in Chapter 22?

2. What color is Laila's hair described as in Chapter 16?

3. How does Mariam's mother commit suicide?

4. What Moghul emperor asked to be buried in Kabul, according to Jalil in Chapter 8?

5. What caused Tariq to lose one of his legs?

Short Essay Questions

1. What political events are described by the narrator in Chapter 15? How do these events affect the citizens of Afghanistan?

2. How is Laila's relationship with Tariq described in Chapter 18? How does Laila feel about Tariq's family?

3. What loss does Mariam suffer in Chapter 13? How does this loss affect her?

4. How has Mariam's relationship with Rasheed evolved in Chapter 14? What has led to these changes?

5. What discrepancy is seen between Nana's and Jalil's descriptions of Mariam's birth in Chapter 2?

6. How has Fariba's behavior changed in Chapter 20? What does Laila make of these changes?

7. When does Chapter 23 take place? What is the political atmosphere like in Afghanistan at this time?

8. How does Nana respond when Mullah Faizullah suggests Mariam be educated in Chapter 3? Why?

9. When does Chapter 24 take place? What are the circumstances around Laila's family at this time?

10. What circumstances lend themselves to Mariam's feelings of isolation in Chapter 10?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss marriage customs within Muslim society and girls’ education in Afghanistan in the 1960s and 1970s. Jalil has three wives in the novel. How common is it for Muslim men to have more than one wife? What customs surround marriage and courtship in Afghanistan, particularly in the 1960s?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the themes of pregnancy and oppression in the novel. What oppressions has Mariam faced as a woman in Afghanistan by the age of fifteen? How are these oppressions compounded with her marriage? How does Mariam feel about her pregnancy? How do these themes apply to Laila?

Essay Topic 3

Analyze the character of Mariam as one of the two protagonists in A Thousand Splendid Suns. How old is Mariam when she is introduced? What is Mariam’s relationship like with each of her parents? Whom is Mariam closest to? Why?

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