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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why is Alfa missing one of his hands?
(a) He lost one when he was running.
(b) He buried one and forgot where it was buried.
(c) Due to a prank from a soldier-friend, Jean-Baptiste.
(d) He gave one as an offering to his sorcerer mentor.

2. What earns Alfa his solitude in war in Chapter VII?
(a) His language.
(b) His unwillingness to wash.
(c) His prayers.
(d) The enemy hands.

3. What animal does Alfa compare Mademba to when he suffers as he dies?
(a) A peacock.
(b) A dog.
(c) An old solitary lion.
(d) A snake.

4. What does Alfa imagine the Germans did for the person who killed Jean-Baptiste?
(a) Give him chocolate.
(b) Give him a parade.
(c) Offer him tobacco and maybe even write a song for him.
(d) Punish him.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Alfa do to preserve the hands he severs?

2. What does the voice inside Alfa's head tell him as he stayed with Mademba when Mademba was dying?

3. When do Alfa's trenchmates begin to really fear him?

4. How do Alfa's fellow soldiers react when he brings his first few "trophies" back?

5. What does Alfa claim he reeks of?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Alfa notice about Ibrahima Sack's translations for Captain Armand to Alfa in Part II?

2. What does Alfa think about his fellow soldiers and his perceptions of who is really is in Part I?

3. Why does Jean-Baptiste decide to goad the enemy into killing him?

4. How does Alfa always kill the German soldiers he kills after Mademba's death?

5. What does Afla think of the trenches as when he takes Mademba back there with him following Mademba's death?

6. Why does Alfa receive the Croix de Guerre, a medal of honor?

7. Why does Alfa not want to reveal where he is hiding the severed hands of the Germans to Captain Armand?

8. What does Alfa often see in his enemy's eyes before he kills him?

9. Why do Alfa's own soldiers begin to fear and avoid him after he brings home the fourth severed hand?

10. What does Mademba ask Alfa to do as Mademba lays mortally wounded on the battlefield?

(see the answer keys)

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