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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. What did Synnove Mitchell tell Bilquis was happening to her?

2. What servants did Bilquis replace?

3. What had Bilquis' surprise visitor noticed that pleased Bilquis?

4. What did Mahmud want his relative to teach him?

5. What did Bilquis say we can do for Christ?

Short Essay Questions

1. What personal significance did Bilquis place upon the conference in Singapore?

2. Who did Bilquis decide to invite to her Christmas party?

3. What did Bilquis discover about her personality through her experience with the children and the plum tree?

4. How did Bilquis explain to Mahmud that Christians can have great confidence in dangerous times?

5. What did Bilquis learn about repentance that she calls a "beautiful secret"?

6. What did Peggy Schlorholtz want Bilquis to do with her?

7. Why had four of Bilquis' Christian servants fled from her house?

8. What pressure did the community put upon Bilquis?

9. What happened to Bilquis when she decided that she would not be driven out of her home?

10. What were the negative and positive results of the Christmas party?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In your essay, discuss the differences you see between Bilquis' life as a Pakistani and the life she might have experienced as a Western woman. Use the following questions as the beginning of your thinking: Why does she not drive? Why does she have to ask her servants whether her grandson has eaten? Why does she have to learn from her servants where her family is and what their intentions are toward her? Are these situations governed by cultural mores that are peculiar to her time and place?

Essay Topic 2

Using the Internet, write an essay comparing the Pakistan described by Bilquis with the Pakistan of today. Is the country still 96% Muslim? Are there conflicts with other religions within the country? Are the Bhutto family members still in power? Is "biraderi" still the basis of family and tribal governance? What other differences and similarities do you see?

Essay Topic 3

As Bilquis' story progresses, both she and the reader sense an impending doom that does not come to pass. She never learns what might have happened to her and Mahmud had she not hurried out of the country. In your essay, discuss this information gap. Is it disappointing to you? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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