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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 is the name of the police officer Aisha likes?

2. How does Amina feel after she starts supervising the household from bed?

3. What is the name of Ahmad's assistant?

4. What is on a provocative poster that Kamal looks at along with the shrine of al-Husayn?

5. Where does Kamal see a bus heading at the end of Chapter 8?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Amina's sons react when they come to visit her at her mother's house just after her exile?

2. What happens when Amina confesses leaving the house to visit the al-Husayn shrine to Ahmad?

3. How are Ahmad and Mme. Zubayda's interactions described in Chapter 14?

4. How does the family react to Ahmad's announcement that Aisha cannot marry in Chapter 26?

5. How does Yasin remember his happy childhood ruined by a fruit merchant?

6. How are Ahmad's attempts at getting Zubayda to sing at a party described in Chapter 15?

7. How does Yasin prowl for women in Chapter 12?

8. How is Amina's mother described when she goes to stay with her during her exile?

9. How does Ahmad react to Shaykh Mutawalli's claim that he is an adulterer in Chapter 7?

10. How does Ahmad react when a matchmaker hints that Mme. Nafusa wanted to be his second wife?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the impact the revolution in Cairo had on the book's characters, namely Kamal and Fahmy. How were Fahmy and Kamal on two sides of the spectrum in terms of the revolution's impact on their lives?

Essay Topic 2

Examine the nature of the family coffee hour in the book. What is telling of the family's fear of Ahmad based on the openness of their coffee hour discussions?

Essay Topic 3

Examine the author's portrayal of domesticity in the female characters of Ahmad's household. What is telling of the changes in culture based on Amina and Khadija's differing views on domesticity?

(see the answer keys)

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