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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. Which potential name for Seema’s child does Leigh oppose?

2. Which of Keats’s poems does Tahera favor?

3. Which of the following is noted as among Bill’s favorite dishes?

4. Which of the following meanings is given for Seema’s name?

5. How old is Seema in 2010?

Short Essay Questions

1. To what action of his does Bill ascribe the peril Seema and Ishraaq face at the latter’s birth?

2. For what reason does Tahera refuse to eat the chicken served on the day she arrives in San Francisco?

3. Why does Seema note she and Tahera used to walk to school hand in hand?

4. What reasons does Seema have for lying long abed the morning after Tahera arrives in San Francisco?

5. How does Tahera prepare her family for her trip to San Francisco?

6. For what purposes does Imam Zia seek to develop the area surrounding his mosque?

7. For what sign do the physicians attending on Ishraaq’s mother’s death wait?

8. What reason does Seema posit that Nafeesa cooks for her and Tahera, despite her imprecations?

9. When Seema visits Bill at the home they had shared, she notes attempting to conceal her arrival. How does she make the attempt, and why ?

10. What reservations does Tahera initially have about accepting guardianship of Ishraaq?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

To what extent can the novel be taken as autobiographical? What in the novel and in its authorial context suggests as much? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

To what other writer’s work in your experience does Ahmed’s seem most similar? What makes the writers similar? What differentiates them? Overall, which do you regard as doing better at the craft of writing, and why?

Essay Topic 3

Explicate the significance of the name of any one character in the text.

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This section contains 628 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample