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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following does Asha receive as a birthday present?

2. For how many rupees is a stolen ladder sold?

3. What faith does Cynthia profess?

4. What brand of rat poison does Meena use?

5. In which jail is Karam held?

Short Essay Questions

1. What causes Asha to feel “like a giantess, coming home” (135)?

2. Why are Abdul’s compatriots accepting of deceptions in narratives?

3. What familial duty does Manju carry out at the wedding in her mother’s hometown?

4. Why is Navrarti welcomed by the local girls?

5. Why does Rahul decline to help the injured scavenger he sees beside the road?

6. Why does Manju withdraw from Asha?

7. Why do Sunil and Kalu like to look at their slum from a pile of rubble?

8. Why did India set up high-speed courts, per the text?

9. Why had Sunil and Sonu fallen out previously?

10. Summarize Priya’s testimony in Karam’s case.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Readerly attention focuses on the following comment: “India still made a person know his place, and wishing things different struck Abdul as a childish pastime, like trying to write your name in a bowl of melted kulfi” (15). What might attract attention thereto, and why might it do so?

Essay Topic 2

To what other writer’s work in your experience does Boo’s seem most similar? What makes the writers similar? What differentiates them? Overall, which do you regard as doing better at the craft of writing, and why?

Essay Topic 3

Assuming that Behind the Beautiful Forevers should be standard reading for a given class and level, what class and what level? Why that class and why that level? What in the text suggests as much, and how does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 552 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample