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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 degrees is Manju poised to earn?

2. How many years shorter than the national average is life expectancy in Mumbai, per the text?

3. How does the text gloss the term “chikna”?

4. As which of the following does Cynthia claim to work?

5. Per the text, which of the following does Freud identify as a main group of fantasy?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why had the women of Asha’s hometown esteemed her in her youth?

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

3. What prompts Asha to berate Manju for her teaching work?

4. How does Manju plan to escape an arranged marriage to a rural soldier?

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

6. Why does Manju withdraw from Asha?

7. How does Cynthia’s testimony go awry?

8. What is Asha’s main regret as her political career advances?

9. To what does Meena’s family ascribe her death?

10. For what reasons does Asha have sex with men not her husband?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Given their circumstances, how do the participants in the events of the book avoid despair? What does their success at doing so offer readers far removed from those circumstances?

Essay Topic 2

Consider the quotation prefacing Part Two: The Business of Burning: “Rich people fight about stupid things. Why shouldn’t poor people do the same?” (69). To what extent does it correspond with the contents of the book as a whole? What in the text shows as much, and how does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

What character is the protagonist of Behind the Beautiful Forevers? How does the book support such an assertion?

(see the answer keys)

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