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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. What type of animal droppings surrounded the house on stilts in the jungle, where Michael and his family stayed?
(a) Elephant.
(b) Deer.
(c) Boar.
(d) Buffalo.

2. What disease did one of Rene's cows catch?
(a) Mad cow disease.
(b) Milk fever.
(c) Anthrax.
(d) Rinderpest fever.

3. What was Mervyn's rank in the Ceylon Light Infantry when Michael was born?
(a) Colonel.
(b) Major.
(c) Captain.
(d) Sergeant.

4. What costume did Doris wear to the Galle Face Dance?
(a) Caterpillar.
(b) Cat.
(c) Lobster.
(d) Dog.

5. How many feet did Michael and his companions climb in thirty miles when they drove to the tea estate?
(a) 3,000.
(b) 2,000.
(c) 5,000.
(d) 6,000.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the name of the dog that the Ondaatjes had on the tea estate?

2. What poets did Doris enjoy?

3. What was the name of the officer in the Ceylon Light Infantry that Mervyn terrified when he was in his twenties?

4. What was the name of Lalla's head milkman?

5. How long was the tunnel where Mervyn threatened to commit suicide?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Mervyn was in his twenties, why did he stop a train ten miles out of Colombo?

2. What did Doris coach the three older children to do when Mervyn lapsed into one of his alcoholic states?

3. Why was Mervyn banned from the Ceylon Railroads after 1943?

4. What did a fortune-teller predict when Doris left Ceylon in 1949?

5. Why did it take so long to drive from Colombo to the tea estate?

6. Michael recorded sounds of the night in the jungle when he was in Ceylon. What did he hear when he played the tape back in Canada?

7. How did Michael get a bath when he was five and attending a boarding school?

8. What did Rene de Saram do when one of her cows caught Rinderpest fever?

9. What happened to the eggs that Willie Gratiaen imported from Australia?

10. Why couldn't Mervyn stand Lalla?

(see the answer keys)

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