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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 old was Lalla when she became a widow?
(a) Not yet 30.
(b) 27.
(c) Almost 25.
(d) 32.

2. What profession did Lalla's brother Vere try to pursue?
(a) Banker.
(b) Auctioneer.
(c) Lawyer.
(d) Farmer.

3. During the rainy season, how many hours a day would it rain at the tea estate?
(a) 14.
(b) 16.
(c) 18.
(d) 20.

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

5. How long were Mervyn and Doris married before they divorced?
(a) 12 years.
(b) 17 years.
(c) 14 years.
(d) 16 years.

Short Answer Questions

1. 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?

2. When did Michael's Aunt Dolly begin smoking?

3. What flowers did Michael remember seeing on the last estate where he lived with his siblings?

4. What type of vehicle did Mervyn drive when he nearly killed the three older children and himself?

5. How far was the car from the house when it stalled?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Mervyn deter Lalla from ravaging the garden at Kuttapitiya?

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

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

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

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

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

7. How did Mervyn nearly kill his three older children?

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

9. How did Lalla die?

10. Why couldn't Mervyn stand Lalla?

(see the answer keys)

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