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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 of the sisters feign pregnancy after their coming-out party?
(a) Four.
(b) Zero.
(c) Two.
(d) One.

2. About what do Old Man Shakil's daughters regularly fantasize?
(a) China.
(b) Freedom.
(c) Male genitalia.
(d) Marriage.

3. How many male servants remain in the Shakil sisters' house?
(a) One.
(b) Thirteen.
(c) Four.
(d) Three.

4. What country is mentioned as invading Afghanistan at the beginning of Chapter 2?
(a) Russia.
(b) Israel.
(c) Pakistan.
(d) China.

5. What significant action does Omar do to Farah before leaving her father's customs post?
(a) Hypnotize her.
(b) Paint her hands.
(c) Insult her.
(d) Beat her.

Short Answer Questions

1. What word best describes the personality of Bilquis' father?

2. Where does Omar believe Hell is located?

3. What happens to the narrator's poet friend in Karachi by the time Rushdie returns to London?

4. Of what imminent threat is Bilquis' warned by the sound like the beating wings of an angel?

5. How is Omar initially received by the student body of the school he attends?

Short Essay Questions

1. What characterizes Omar Khayyam Shakil's early educational experiences?

2. Briefly describe why the narrator insists that his novel is not about a real Pakistan, and what would happen to (the story, not the actual book) it if it were.

3. How does Bilquis come to be accepted as a member of the Hyder family?

4. What vice does Omar discern in Farah immediately before hypnotizing her, and how?

5. What are the important nuances of the word "sharam" that are not carried over into the English "shame"?

6. How do Raza Hyder and Maulana Dawood come to trust one another immediately?

7. How does Raza Hyder describe his courtship of Bilquis?

8. What happens to the real names of the three sisters, and by what names are they instead called?

9. How does Sindbad Mengal meet his fate?

10. What effect does voyeurism-by-proxy have on Omar's mothers, and what is possibly the consequence of this effect?

(see the answer keys)

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