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

Short Answer Questions

1. What is intended by Bilal to be draped over Omar's neck after his 12th birthday?

2. What is the name of the Harappa family estate where Rani Harappa lives?

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

4. Who is the betrothed of Rani Hamayun?

5. What word best describes Omar's feeling towards life?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Of what two cultural parts is the town of Q's dumbbell shape composed?

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

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

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

7. What sort of gossip floats around Farah Zoroaster and Eduardo Rodrigues?

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

9. What characterizes Farah Zoroaster's life in Q after returning from her forced marriage to Eduardo Rodrigues?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Periodically throughout the story, the fictional Pakistan undergoes periods of military coups and subsequent military rule. In an analytical essay, discuss the possible reasons and significance for this occasional turn to the military. What is sought by a military coup, implicitly or explicitly? What sort of men typically achieve high positions in the military? Why are such mean appealing in a time of instability? How do such men eventually also fall from governmental favor?

Essay Topic 2

Shame ends with an enormous, violent explosion. This explosion is very symbolic of the story as a whole. Without getting caught up too much in the details, explain how this symbolic explosion is a fitting end to the turmoil and conflict of the story. What various disturbances and struggles throughout the book are terminated by this explosion, both literally and as a symbol? How do the various characters and their actions contribute to the explosion's magnitude? How is the chain of events which leads up to the explosion started, and which characters are responsible for it?

Essay Topic 3

Being careful to make the necessary distinctions, write an analytical essay which discusses the significance of the actions of the Beast, as something that resides within but is not Sufiya Zinobia. Which of its actions most significantly impact the story? Why is it an entity that is not Sufiya Zinobia, properly speaking (consider the allegorical significance of Sufiya Zinobia)? Why would it reside within Sufiya Zinobia? What function does the Beast play in the plot of the story? To what actions is the Beast a reaction? Who are its victims, and why?

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This section contains 815 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample