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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. How many children did Arthur Jarvis have?
(a) Two.
(b) One.
(c) Four.
(d) Three.

2. Which adjectives does Mrs. Lithebe use to describe the people she thinks Gertrude should not spend time with?
(a) Greedy and immoral.
(b) Brutal and mean.
(c) Promiscuous and vulgar.
(d) Idle and careless.

3. Why is there little public interest in Absalom’s murder trial?
(a) Because newspapers did want to draw attention to black violence against whites.
(b) Because a more prominent politician was recently murdered and his killer was still at large.
(c) Because gold had been discovered in Odendaalsrust.
(d) Because a mining strike was causing violent outbreaks all over the city.

4. What option does Kumalo briefly consider upon returning home due to his shame regarding his family’s behavior?
(a) None of the above.
(b) He considers asking the Bishop to replace him as the Ndotsheni priest.
(c) He considers leaving Ndotsheni forever.
(d) He considers resigning from the priesthood.

5. What is the verdict for Absalom’s two accomplices?
(a) The Judge finds insufficient evidence to convict either of them and lets them go free.
(b) The Judge makes them as culpable as Absalom in Arthur Jarvis’ murder and sentences them to death.
(c) The Judge finds one guilty of assault and sends him to twenty years in prison while allowing the other to go free.
(d) The Judge finds them guilty of house breaking and sentences them to ten years prison.

Short Answer Questions

1. What word for God does Kumalo use when praying?

2. How does Jarvis react when Kumalo admits it was his son who murdered James’?

3. What word does Kumalo use to describe a quality about Arthur to James?

4. How does Kumalo’s wife react to the addition of Absalom’s wife and Gertrude’s child to the family?

5. What had James Jarvis hoped would be his son’s career?

Short Essay Questions

1. What becomes Kumalo’s obsession when he returns to Ndotsheni, and what ways does he act on it? What are the results of his efforts?

2. Describe the final meeting between Stephen and John Kumalo.

3. Explain the metaphorical usage of the rainstorm that occurs in Book Three, Chapter 3.

4. Describe the reactions of Kumalo, Msimangu, James Jarvis, and the police to John Kumalo’s speech about black mining laborers need to demand more pay for their work.

5. Compare and contrast the lifestyles of James Jarvis and Stephen Kumalo living so close to each other in the Natal province.

6. Describe Barbara Smith’s response to Kumalo’s question about her servant, and explain the significance of James’ translation of this answer to Kumalo.

7. What happens to Gertrude at a church meeting at Msimangu’s mission? What does she do afterward?

8. How does the village chief’s interaction with the magistrate and James Jarvis support John Kumalo’s earlier statement about chiefs, “He is a trick, a trick to hold together something that the white man desires to hold together.”

9. Compare and contrast the ways the novel ends “happily” versus the way it ends “unhappily.”

10. What does Absalom give as his defense for owning a gun when the Judge asks him about it?

(see the answer keys)

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