View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. When was Mervyn banned from the Ceylon Railways?

2. What type of bushes were outside the dining room doors at the tea estate?

3. What was Mervyn's favorite resthouse?

4. Where did Doris hold her breath and faint so that Mervyn would have to stop drinking?

5. How many feet did Michael and his companions climb in thirty miles when they drove to the tea estate?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. How did Lalla die?

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

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

6. What was Michael's Aunt Dolly like?

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's father throw caution to the wind when he married a Dickman?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Michael described Kuttapitiya, the last estate where he and his siblings lived as children. Discuss Kuttapitiya and the Ondaatje's life there.

Essay Topic 2

Mervyn struggled with dipsomania. Discuss dipsomania and how it affected Mervyn and his family.

Essay Topic 3

Michael and the children came upon a dead kabaragoya on the beach. Compare the kabaragoya and the thalagoya.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 903 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample