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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is a totem, according to Alfa?
(a) Taboo.
(b) Silly.
(c) A relic of the older generations only.
(d) An expense.

2. How does Alfa repeatedly refer to Mademba Diop?
(a) My nemesis.
(b) My soul mate.
(c) My more-than-brother.
(d) My cousin.

3. Whose "more-than-brother" does Alfa become in the wake of Mademba's death?
(a) God's.
(b) Life's.
(c) Prayer's.
(d) Death's.

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

5. How far away do his fellow soldiers begin staying from Alfa?
(a) Two fields' length.
(b) Nine leagues.
(c) Six meters.
(d) Ten large steps.

6. Who wrote, "We embraced each other by our names?"
(a) Joyce.
(b) Shakespeare.
(c) Montaigne.
(d) Byron.

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

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

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

10. What entreaty to Mademba does Alfa finish Chapter I with?
(a) He asks Mademba to tell his mother he loves her if he sees her in heaven.
(b) He asks Mademba to avenge him.
(c) He asks Mademba to forgive him.
(d) He asks Mademba to pray for him.

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

12. What was the only thing Alfa was thinking about as Mademba died?
(a) Getting revenge on the soldier who killed Mademba.
(b) How he himself would survive the day.
(c) His prayers to his mother.
(d) His own starvation.

13. In what way does Mademba actually die?
(a) A German solder disembowels him.
(b) He is shot by one of his own infantrymen.
(c) A German soldier hangs him.
(d) A German soldier shoots him.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Alfa understand that Captain Armand wants on the battlefield, but not back in the trenches?

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

3. Why was it particularly dangerous for Alfa to do what he did with Mademba's body in Chapter II?

4. What does Alfa do when a retreat is called, in the wake of Mademba's death?

5. What does Alfa begin to think almost as soon as Mademba is dead?

(see the answer keys)

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