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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. Why can’t the Smalls fly overseas?
(a) Rebels are shooting down the planes.
(b) The planes are broken.
(c) The don’t have money.
(d) They can’t reach the airport.

2. What is Maureen afraid of, in terms of the children and the water?
(a) It is too warm.
(b) Feces.
(c) Illness.
(d) It is too cold.

3. What does July offer to bring Maureen instead of the medication his wife offered?
(a) A blanket and cold medicine.
(b) A thermometer.
(c) More wood.
(d) A new mixture.

4. Why does Bam know something has happened in Section 4?
(a) Maureen is fully dressed.
(b) Maureen is nearly naked.
(c) Maureen is distant.
(d) Maureen is rude.

5. What does Maureen believe about July as he addresses her and Bam in Section 4?
(a) That he is always speaking to Bam.
(b) That he sees them as inferior.
(c) That he sees them as equals.
(d) That she is always who he is speaking to.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does July bring the Smalls at the beginning of the novel?

2. What is surprising about the photo of Maureen and Lydia?

3. What does Royce continue to ask to do in Section 3?

4. What does Maureen realize about herself when she bathes in Section 1?

5. What does Maureen do when she menstruates?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do you think July is so insistent that the Smalls continue to allow him and his family to work for them?

2. What does the author mean by “a contempt and humiliation that came from their blood and his” (pg 62)?

3. Why does July object to Maureen’s use of his wife’s cough syrup?

4. Describe what Bam and July are able to make for the village.

5. What do Maureen and Bam argue about in Section 3?

6. What does Victor’s anger at the “stealing” of “their” water show?

7. What does July say that makes Maureen equally angry in Section 5?

8. What is happening in South Africa at the time of the novel?

9. Describe the bakke, and its use in the Smalls family, both previously and currently.

10. Explain Martha and July's mother's reaction to meeting Maureen in Section 2.

(see the answer keys)

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