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

2. In one of the stories about Mervyn's train escapade, what color were the dogs he was leading?
(a) Brown.
(b) Yellow.
(c) Black.
(d) White.

3. In the middle of the 19th century, how old was the English officer who was ordered to organize the building of a road from Colombo to Kandy?
(a) 19.
(b) 17.
(c) 20.
(d) 18.

4. What was Mervyn's favorite resthouse?
(a) Avissawella.
(b) Kandy.
(c) Kitulgala.
(d) Kegalle.

5. When did Michael's Aunt Dolly begin smoking?
(a) 20 years old.
(b) 18 years old.
(c) 15 years old.
(d) 25 years old.

Short Answer Questions

1. What would wake Michael and his siblings on the last estate where they lived as children?

2. What was Susan's husband's name?

3. What game did Michael play with Susan and her husband during a thunderstorm on the tea estate?

4. How far did Michael say one could drive in Ceylon and be in a different landscape?

5. How much cooler was it at the tea estate than it was in Colombo?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Doris do when she was leaving Mervyn and he threw the car key into the tea bushes?

2. What did it take to build a road from Colombo to Kandy?

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

4. 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?

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

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

7. What was Michael's mother doing when David Grenier drowned?

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

9. What did Doris love about Mervyn, even after the divorce?

10. How did Lalla die?

(see the answer keys)

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