View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does the narrator lose one of the animals she is traveling with?

2. How do the inhabitants of the squatter settlement view the narrator when she comes looking for Denoon?

3. What does Grace tell the narrator during their lunch in a restaurant?

4. What does the narrator consider her work on her thesis in the African bush?

5. Where do Grace and the narrator find Nelson Denoon?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator pretend to be when she enters Tsau? Why?

2. What does the narrator obsess about losing after her donkey runs away? Why?

3. What does the narrator discover through her thesis work in the African bush? Is it what she expected?

4. What secret does the narrator learn from "Z"?

5. Why does the narrator have such difficulty finding the place where Nelson Denoon is rumored to be staying?

6. The narrator begins to have very strange experiences in the desert. What are they, and how does she overcome it?

7. What happens when the narrator is summoned before the Mother Committee? What must she do to stay in Tsau?

8. What kinds of jokes does the narrator tell Nelson after dinner at Mma Isang's? Why?

9. What happens between the narrator and Nelson Denoon when she first finds the place he is staying?

10. Describe the narrator's reaction to meeting Nelson Denoon. How is he different from her expectations?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Nelson essentially turns his invitation to the narrator to come live with him into a PR event. Based on the way Nelson has handled his relationship with the narrator to this point and how he feels about village politics, why did he ask her in this way? What is the author demonstrating about Nelson's personality?

Essay Topic 2

The relationship between blacks and whites in Africa has changed throughout history. Research the history of the Botswana area and create a time line of facts, changes, and political movements. Explain how the history of the area is important to the racial climate in the story, the characters' actions, and how it impacts the relationships in the story.

Essay Topic 3

In Chapter Four we see the relationship between Nelson and the narrator evolving. What examples does the author give of this evolution and future development? How do each of the characters feel about this progression in their relationship?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,204 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample