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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the Begum?
(a) The tree outside of Mrs. Saunders' window.
(b) The Indian term for an English woman's gloves.
(c) The Nawab's mother.
(d) A traditional Indian game.

2. Why does Inder Lal say that he agreed to the treatment that Ritu receives?
(a) He meditated on the problem and believes this is the best course of action.
(b) The person recommending it healed with this treatment.
(c) Nothing else has worked.
(d) It is good for her soul.

3. Why doesn't Harry take the berth that Douglas has arranged for him?
(a) He does not want to leave Olivia.
(b) He has his own berth arranged.
(c) He does not want to leave his mother.
(d) The Nawab cancels the berth.

4. What is a suttee?
(a) A fertility symbol.
(b) A religious suicide of a widow.
(c) A long mat used for praying.
(d) A religious icon of an older woman.

5. Who says she came to India to find peace, but only got dysentery?
(a) Beth Crawford.
(b) An English girl the narrator meets at an old bungalow.
(c) The wife of the major at the Nawab's dinner party.
(d) Mrs. Saunders.

6. Why does Harry tell the narrator and Mrs. Crawford that he has only been to the Nawab's mountain chalet once?
(a) The Begum doesn't like it.
(b) It holds bitter memories for the Nawab.
(c) He was forbidden to return after that first visit.
(d) The fire made it unlivable.

7. What does Inder Lal say about his belief in evil spirits?
(a) He does not believe in evil spirits.
(b) He believes that evil spirits are all around us.
(c) He does not believe in any type of God or spirits.
(d) He believes that evil spirits cannot enter a virtuous person.

8. Why is the person the narrator discovers inside the royal tomb there, in Section 13?
(a) The person is being held prisoner.
(b) The person is sick with fever.
(c) The person is praying.
(d) The person is hiding.

9. What best describes the royal tombs visited by the narrator in Section 13?
(a) Enclosed by arches and dark.
(b) Crumbling to the ground.
(c) Simple and peaceful.
(d) Gilt with gold and very ornate.

10. What do the narrator and the person or people who accompany her on Husband's Wedding Day do once they are there?
(a) Sing and pray.
(b) Share food and have a good time.
(c) Help older widows.
(d) Dance, drink and listen to poems about Baba Firdau.

11. According to the narrator's first journal entry, where does she spend her first night in Bombay?
(a) In a doorway.
(b) In a missionary hostel.
(c) With a woman she met on the trip over.
(d) In a cheap hotel attached to a bar.

12. What is a sadhu?
(a) A blessing.
(b) A holy man.
(c) An unforgivable sin.
(d) A tomb painting.

13. Why does the narrator start sleeping in the outdoor courtyard with Inder Lal's family?
(a) To see the stars.
(b) To be close to Inder Lal.
(c) To escape the heat.
(d) To escape the rodents.

14. Who does the narrator say her grandmother is in the first section of the novel?
(a) Marcia.
(b) Beth.
(c) Tessie.
(d) Olivia.

15. Why does the Nawab tell Douglas he is visiting on the day that Douglas arrives home during one of the Nawab's regular visits to Olivia?
(a) To invite Douglas to work in the palace.
(b) To congratulate Douglas for the way he handled a recent death.
(c) To invite Douglas and Olivia to a dinner in their honor.
(d) To offer a traditional prayer of welcome for their home.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who goes with Ritu on her pilgrimage to the Himalayas?

2. Why was Baba Firdau's shrine built?

3. Who visits Olivia four days after she and Douglas attend their first dinner party at the palace?

4. Where does the Nawab keep his pianos?

5. What does the palace watchman give to the narrator?

(see the answer keys)

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