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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. Who is Raza Hyder's chief adviser when he becomes administrator of the region?
(a) Omar Khayyam Shakil.
(b) Aladdin Gichki.
(c) Iskander Harappa.
(d) Maulana Dawood.

2. What is the name of Bilquis' widowed father?
(a) Thusa Udi.
(b) Mohammad Shakil.
(c) Jakil Mohatta.
(d) Mahmoud Kemal.

3. What is the first sight of Omar Khayyam Shakil?
(a) The Impossible Mountains.
(b) His father.
(c) His mother.
(d) Hashmat Babi.

4. What would happen to a realistic book about Pakistan, according to the narrator?
(a) It would be ignored.
(b) It would be banned.
(c) It would be praised.
(d) It would be the object of laughter.

5. What is the name the Shakil sisters give to their house?
(a) Bassorah.
(b) Tayy.
(c) Nishapur.
(d) Damascus.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many visits has the narrator made to his sister over 22 years?

2. What about Omar makes Farah incapable of returning his love?

3. For how many days, roughly, does Raza Hyder go without sleep in order to watch over the refugees?

4. What does the narrator say is Sufiya Zinobia's relation to Omar?

5. What is the immediate result of Mahmoud's announcement that he is showing a double feature to both Hindus and Muslims?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is guaranteed to the Shakil sisters by the installation of their dumb-waiter?

2. Why does the narrator appropriate the story of his friend, the poet?

3. In what idea do Raza and Bilquis put an undue amount of faith, and why is this a troublesome belief?

4. Of what sort of development is Omar Khayyam Shakil deprived in his formative years?

5. What theory does the author propose regarding the mysterious pregnancy of the sisters?

6. Why is Raza Hyder's military victory so greatly lauded throughout Pakistan?

7. Why is Raza Hyder sent to the Needle Valley?

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

9. Briefly, what is the generally accepted reason that the husbands in the Hyder family "secretly" visit their wives in common in the night?

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

(see the answer keys)

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