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

2. Who does Ngũgĩ think about while walking home at the beginning of the memoir?
(a) His friend Kenneth.
(b) His brother Good Wallace.
(c) His girlfriend.
(d) His teachers.

3. Who was the new principal of Alliance in 1940?
(a) Francis Edwards.
(b) Frank Carey.
(c) Carey Edwards.
(d) Edward Carey Francis.

4. What was the name of the prison to which Ngũgĩ had to go to receive his final confirmation in Chapter 21?
(a) Kamaruthu.
(b) Tigoni.
(c) Limuru.
(d) Gotini.

5. What did Ngũgĩ think might help quiet his spiritual doubts?
(a) Praying more.
(b) Seeing God.
(c) Hearing God.
(d) Converting one person.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What did Ngũgĩ use as a model for the new debate format at his school?

3. Where would Ngũgĩ be screened by Government officials?

4. In Chapter 1, what is the one thing left standing where Ngũgĩ’s home used to be?

5. From whom did Ngũgĩ receive a long letter regarding whether one needed a license to write?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Ngũgĩ refer to Alliance as a sanctuary?

2. What were some of the differences Ngũgĩ notes from when Edward Carey Francis was not on campus to when he returned?

3. What did Ngũgĩ see at the event for Lord Baden Powell that he found most moving?

4. What descriptive words does Ngũgĩ use to show the reader what his home looks like upon his first return?

5. What did they learn of E.K. that gravely disappoints and ultimately disbands the cabal?

6. Describe Ngũgĩ’s feelings about volunteering at Sunday School and the words or phrases he uses to express these feelings?

7. What words does Ngũgĩ use to describe the school when he returns from break in January 1957?

8. In what ways does Ngũgĩ say Alliance used schools of the American South as a model when it first opened?

9. Ngũgĩ says that schools were separate and unequal, thus sports were the only way to compare abilities. What does he say the games between Alliance and other all white schools became a metaphor for?

10. In what ways did Edward Carey Francis change the education model of Alliance?

(see the answer keys)

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