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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 does the narrator do while Nelson sleeps?

2. What glass work has Nelson been creating based on a glass sculpture he created as a child?

3. What prevents the narrator from attending the public debate on time?

4. What tribe does the narrator come across during her search for Nelson in the desert?

5. What does Dorcas accuse Nelson of the night he and the narrator argue?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator feel after Nelson is found in the desert and back in Tsau? What does this mean for their future?

2. Why does the scheduled debate over God bother the narrator so much? How does Nelson feel?

3. What weighs heavily on the narrator's mind about her and Nelson's relationship? Why?

4. How does Nelson suggest to the narrator that they could stay in Tsau? Why? How does the narrator respond?

5. What upsets Nelson about the growing amount of bartering with Basarwa, a nearby settlement? What items does he not like?

6. How does the narrator react when Nelson shows her a political diagram of the women in the village? Why? How does Nelson react? Why? Are their reactions characteristic of them?

7. Why does the narrator become so frustrated when she has Nelson back in Gaborone? What does this frustration lead her to?

8. Why are the villagers against hand washing and sanitation?

9. What are some of the issues that Nelson Denoon and the narrator debate and discuss?

10. What argument do Nelson and the narrator have the day after the debate? Why is this significant?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout the story the narrator does things or feels things that she does not feel positively about. How does the author describe these situations? Choose two examples from the book and explain how and why the author describes those feelings in the narrator.

Essay Topic 2

Describe what happened to Nelson in the desert. What kind of transformation has he experienced? Is this common among survivors? What does his transformation mean for his future with the narrator and the future of Tsau?

Essay Topic 3

Tsau is a complicated social experiment unlike any other in Africa at the time. From what we've learned in the book, describe the advantages and downfalls of such an experiment. Based on the political and social environment in Africa during the setting of this story, does an experiment such as this seem feasible?

(see the answer keys)

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