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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. From whom did Ngũgĩ receive a long letter regarding whether one needed a license to write?
(a) His brother.
(b) Kenneth Mbgũa.
(c) His mother.
(d) Kenneth Wanjai.

2. What Billy Graham movie was screened at the school?
(a) Spiritual Conflicts.
(b) Spirt of Heaven.
(c) Souls in Heaven.
(d) Souls in Conflict.

3. What is the name of the first full length play Ngũgĩ attended at Alliance?
(a) Maisha ni Nguva.
(b) Maisha ni Kiambu.
(c) Maisha ni Nini.
(d) Maisha ni Nani.

4. Whose refusal to drive Ngũgĩ and his friends back to school resulted in the boys being late?
(a) Wanjai’s brother.
(b) Ngũgĩ’s mother.
(c) Good Wallace.
(d) Wanjai’s father.

5. Whose resignation from his Conservative prime ministership was the subject of a school assembly in November?
(a) Joseph Kariuki.
(b) Winston Churchill.
(c) Jonyo Kenyatta.
(d) Allan Ogot.

6. What was the name of the evangelical speaker who so moved Ngũgĩ to accept Jesus?
(a) David Graham.
(b) Billy Graham.
(c) David Martin.
(d) Billy Martin.

7. From whom do Kenneth’s Wanjai and Leonard Mbũgua promise to protect Ngũgĩ during his first year at Alliance?
(a) Mean teachers.
(b) The principal.
(c) Girls.
(d) Bullies.

8. What was the punishment for returning to school late in Chapter 23?
(a) Cleaning the bathrooms.
(b) Cutting the grass.
(c) Getting a license.
(d) Writing an extra paper.

9. When the Russians launched Sputnik II, what animal was on it that caused outrage?
(a) A dog.
(b) A giraffe.
(c) A bird.
(d) A cat.

10. Who is the author of In the House of the Interpreter?
(a) Kenneth Thiong’o
(b) Edward Carey Francis. .
(c) Kenneth Wanjai.
(d) Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o.

11. Who does Ngũgĩ run into at a tailor shop in Kikuyi?
(a) Igogo.
(b) Kenneth Mbgũa.
(c) His sister.
(d) His mother.

12. In Chapter 1, what is the one thing left standing where Ngũgĩ’s home used to be?
(a) A fig tree.
(b) A pear tree.
(c) A mango tree.
(d) A banana tree.

13. What did Jonyo Kenyatta call Kenya?
(a) The Land of Kenyatta.
(b) A Soul in Conflict.
(c) A Land of Conflict.
(d) The Land of Conflicted Souls.

14. Which sport does Ngũgĩ say was his favorite as both spectator and participant?
(a) Baseball.
(b) Soccer.
(c) Track and Field.
(d) Cricket.

15. In what year was the Declaration of the state of Emergency in Kenya?
(a) 1922.
(b) 1932.
(c) 1952.
(d) 1942.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Ngũgĩ discover when he arrived at his home in the beginning of the memoir?

2. With whom did Ngũgĩ travel by train to Limuru?

3. How did Ngũgĩ get to his school?

4. From where did Ngũgĩ return home in April 1955?

5. As the focus of school shifted to preparing students for college, local knowledge was replaced by what at Alliance?

(see the answer keys)

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