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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 black miners die during their short-lived strike?
(a) None.
(b) One hundred.
(c) Twenty.
(d) Three.

2. How do the Jarvises travel to Johannesburg?
(a) By plane.
(b) By train.
(c) By bus.
(d) By private car.

3. What is the Jarvis boy excited to practice with Kumalo?
(a) Basic accounting.
(b) Prayers.
(c) Zulu.
(d) Afrikaans.

4. Where do James Jarvis and Kumalo wait out a rainstorm?
(a) In Kumalo’s church.
(b) In the village school.
(c) In the tribal chief’s office.
(d) In Jarvis’ car.

5. What is the name of the Jarvis farm?
(a) Rainbow Valley.
(b) Sky Farm.
(c) High Place.
(d) Cloud High.

Short Answer Questions

1. What vocation does Gertrude think she would like to try?

2. What is the name of the town in which the Jarvises reside?

3. Which of the following is NOT one of the ways the agricultural demonstrator intends to improve the farming in Ndotsheni?

4. What option does Kumalo briefly consider upon returning home due to his shame regarding his family’s behavior?

5. James has a fleeting memory of the Ndotsheni church and Kumalo as priest. Which of the following best describes his impression of them?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the focus of the novel shift at the beginning of Book Two? Who becomes a secondary protagonist and when does their story start?

2. Compare and contrast Napoleon’s and Kumalo’s attitudes towards James Jarvis.

3. What is the Judge’s ruling in the cases against Absalom and his two accomplices, Johannes and Matthew, and what are the Judge’s reasons for his verdicts?

4. After reading more of his son’s papers, why does James Jarvis leave through the front of the house rather than walking past the blood-stained floor again?

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

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

7. Compare Arthur Jarvis’ son’s attitude toward Kumalo and by extension blacks, to the attitude of the generations above him.

8. Describe the villagers’ reaction to Kumalo’s return to Ndotsheni, from the time he gets off the train until he reaches the church.

9. Describe the incident Kumalo tells his friend about as a way of explaining his idea that James Jarvis is a compassionate man.

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

(see the answer keys)

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