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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Who is Alfa's only real white friend among his fellow soldiers?
(a) Ibrahima.
(b) Jean-Luc.
(c) Roland.
(d) Jean-Baptiste.

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

4. When does Captain Armand finally call Alfa in to have a serious talk about his conduct regarding enemy soldiers?
(a) After Alfa brings back his seventh severed hand.
(b) After Alfa stops speaking to anyone.
(c) After Alfa is missing for three straight days.
(d) After Alfa brings back a severed head.

5. What does Jean-Baptiste do with the hand he steals from Alfa?
(a) Buries it.
(b) Burns it.
(c) Puts it on a German flag to humiliate the Germans.
(d) Wraps it in bandages and sticks it to his helmet.

6. Where are most of the other Black soldiers from in the unit?
(a) Russia.
(b) The Middle East.
(c) China.
(d) West Africa.

7. Why does Mademba leave before the others on the day he dies?
(a) Alfa tells him he is about to run away and desert the war.
(b) Alfa tells him he will run faster than he can.
(c) Alfa tells him he is sick.
(d) Alfa teases him about his totem.

8. When do Alfa's trenchmates begin to really fear him?
(a) After he brings back the fourth hand of the enemy.
(b) After he starts praying all the time.
(c) After he starts writing spells in his journal.
(d) After he starts talking to his dead mother.

9. What words do Alfa's translator in Part II say over and over?
(a) These are his words.
(b) The Captain says.
(c) Please sir, do not hurt us.
(d) These are not my words.

10. What does Alfa understand that Captain Armand wants on the battlefield, but not back in the trenches?
(a) Friendship.
(b) Madness.
(c) Compassion.
(d) Strength.

11. Who translates the words of Captain Armand for Alfa?
(a) Mademba.
(b) Ibrahima Seck.
(c) Jean-Baptiste.
(d) Horatio.

12. What does Alfa do with Mademba's body after he dies?
(a) Carries it back to his trench.
(b) Burns it.
(c) Cuts it up and buries it.
(d) Leaves it on the battlefield.

13. What is another word Alfa thinks people now think of him as, in the wake of Mademba's death?
(a) A turncoat.
(b) A priest.
(c) An imposter.
(d) A demm.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What work of Cheikh Hamidou Kane's does Diop reference in the beginning of Part I?

2. What does Alfa always come back to the trenches with after Mademba dies?

3. Before Mademba died, how did Alfa usually conduct himself with Mademba on the battlefield?

4. What phrase does Afla repeat many times at the beginning of his sentences in Part I?

5. What does Alfa claim he reeks of?

(see the answer keys)

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