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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Alfa think is necessary on the battlefield, as he narrates in Chapter VI?
(a) Empathy.
(b) Prayer.
(c) Madness.
(d) Food.

2. In Chapter X, what does Alfa know for sure he himself is not, even if everyone else seems to think he is?
(a) A very strong man.
(b) An idiot.
(c) A good friend.
(d) A sorcerer.

3. What is the Diop totem?
(a) An alligator.
(b) A peacock.
(c) An elephant.
(d) A panther.

4. What does Alfa always come back to the trenches with after Mademba dies?
(a) A severed hand and the rifle it carried.
(b) A head.
(c) A flower.
(d) A pig.

5. How do the other soldiers react to Alfa when he comes back to the trench in Chapter II?
(a) They say a prayer for him.
(b) They welcome him as a hero.
(c) They tell him he should have left Mademba's body behind.
(d) They shun him.

6. What does Mademba ask Alfa to do for him in Part I?
(a) Kill him.
(b) Pray for him.
(c) Take him home.
(d) Feed him.

7. What causes a major change in Jean-Baptiste?
(a) His backfiring of his rifle.
(b) His loss of one of his feet.
(c) His receipt of a perfumed letter.
(d) Seeing his best friend die.

8. What does the voice inside Alfa's head tell him as he stayed with Mademba when Mademba was dying?
(a) To run away and leave the war.
(b) Not to kill Mademba and play God.
(c) To kill Mademba.
(d) To respect his mother's wishes and only to kill enemy soldiers.

9. In Chapter III, what does Alfa think of his fellow soldiers?
(a) He thinks they are idiots who cannot think for themselves.
(b) He does not have any opinion of them.
(c) He thinks they are very brave.
(d) He thinks they are intelligent.

10. In Chapter II, what does Alfa think the trenches look like?
(a) A snake.
(b) A woman's genitals.
(c) A river.
(d) A diamond.

11. Where does Alfa get the idea of how to preserve his severed hands?
(a) From how they dried fish in his village, Gandiol.
(b) From the dried meat they eat in the trenches.
(c) From the dried sheep his first wife taught him how to cure.
(d) From the tobacco leaves all the other soldiers hang from the rafters.

12. What phrase does Alfa end Chapter III with?
(a) I know, I understand.
(b) At night, all blood is black.
(c) God knows his plan.
(d) Revenge is righteous.

13. What does Alfa hear the night he approaches the German trenches to avenge Jean-Baptiste's death?
(a) Singing.
(b) Crying.
(c) Snoring.
(d) Angry shouting.

14. What work of Cheikh Hamidou Kane's does Diop reference in the beginning of Part I?
(a) Marmoset.
(b) Space Fields.
(c) Ambiguous Adventure.
(d) Reynard.

15. In Chapter XI, what does Jean-Baptiste become that eventually leads to his death?
(a) A provocateur.
(b) An informant.
(c) A unit leader.
(d) A cook.

Short Answer Questions

1. What entreaty to Mademba does Alfa finish Chapter I with?

2. What work of Pascal Quignard's does Diop reference in the beginning of Part I?

3. What does Alfa think "the Captain's France" requires of him and other Black soldiers?

4. What earns Alfa his solitude in war in Chapter VII?

5. Why are the fires the men make in the trenches so small?

(see the answer keys)

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