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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. As Khalid is being shaved, stripped and processed at Kandahar in Chapter 10, he sees how many other children in the line that look even younger than him?

2. What classmate of Khalid’s, who lives over the music shop, does he recall having said of the torture during the Spanish Inquisition in Chapter 15, ““It’s a stupid way of finding anything out. Whenever my brother twists my arm up my back, it hurts so bad I say anything he wants me to just to get him to stop. So what’s the point in torturing someone if all you get is lies?”

3. What is the name of the “scruffy handcuffed man sitting cross-legged on the bare concrete floor” in the room that the guards take Khalid to in Chapter 8?

4. What is the greeting that the prisoner in the next cell to Khalid’s uses to greet him each morning in Chapter 11?

5. What is the name of the woman who comes to question Khalid in Chapter 6 and is described as being about thirty-five, with straight brown hair?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Khalid’s father remark about on the news when he returns home from work in Chapter 1?

2. Where is Khalid taken in the beginning of Chapter 8? How is this setting described?

3. How does the author illustrate Khalid’s psychological deterioration in Chapter 13?

4. Whom does Khalid meet at the new Indian grocery near his home in Chapter 2? What does this character warn Khalid about?

5. What is Khalid doing when his character is introduced in Chapter 1? What worry concerns Khalid in the opening of the novel?

6. How does Chapter 2 begin? What news does Khalid learn from his mother in the opening of the chapter?

7. What images are displayed to Khalid during his interrogations in Chapter 14? How do these images impact Khalid?

8. What does Khalid do when the guard brings him breakfast in Chapter 7?

9. How is the day-to-day life of Khalid and the other prisoners described in the beginning of Chapter 12?

10. What happens after Abdul has been returned to his cell after interrogation in Chapter 12?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze the character of Abdul Al-Farran. How old does Abdul tell Khalid he is? What does he say was his greatest error in his arrest? What happens to Abdul in the story? How does Khalid respond?

Essay Topic 2

Describe and discuss the act of torture by sleep deprivation. What international regulations forbid torture on prisoners of war? What forms of torture are forbidden? What are the effects of torture by sleep deprivation? What effects of this form of torture are seen in the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Describe and discuss the processing that Khalid undergoes when he arrives in Kandahar. What is the purpose of shaving the hair and facial hair of the prisoners? How do the older prisoners respond to this humiliation? How does it affect Khalid?

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