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

2. How does Alfa always kill the enemy soldiers?
(a) He disembowels them.
(b) He poisons them.
(c) He shoots them.
(d) He hangs them.

3. Why are the fires the men make in the trenches so small?
(a) They only have a little wood.
(b) No one knows how to make proper fires.
(c) To make bigger ones would risk giving away their position to the enemy.
(d) The men are afraid of the heat.

4. Why was it particularly dangerous for Alfa to do what he did with Mademba's body in Chapter II?
(a) It was considered taboo to carry another man's body on his back.
(b) He knew the spirits would punish him for killing Mademba.
(c) He knew his own soldier comrades in the trenches would likely try to kill him when he returned.
(d) It was a bright moon, and the enemy soldiers could see Alfa more clearly.

5. What forces Alfa to ignore Mademba's suffering as Mademba is dying?
(a) The voice he hears in his head, telling him not to kill Mademba.
(b) His own prayers.
(c) His commander's whistle.
(d) Jean-Baptiste's songs.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Alfa imagine the Germans did for the person who killed Jean-Baptiste?

2. Who translates the words of Captain Armand for Alfa?

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

4. Who wrote, "We embraced each other by our names?"

5. In Chapter II, what does Alfa think the trenches look like?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Alfa suspect about Sack's translation to him from Captain Armand?

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

4. What does Alfa let the reader know, through his narration, about the way his best friend Mademba died?

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

6. What was all Alfa could think about when he stayed with Mademba during Mademba's last hours?

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

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

9. What was the purpose of the joking relationship between Alfa and Mademba?

10. What is the cultural attitude from Alfa's culture towards the symbol of a totem?

(see the answer keys)

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