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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the narrator have to put up with regularly?
(a) Snakes in the house.
(b) Babysitting her nieces and nephews.
(c) Her sisters-in-law and mother-in-law's frequent intrusions.
(d) Her mother offering advice.

2. What do the female relatives do for the deceased?
(a) Wash the dead person's body.
(b) Wail while walking around the outside of the home.
(c) Light the funeral pyre.
(d) Cover their heads with yellow cloth for two weeks.

3. What does Mawdo, Aissatou's husband, admire about his father-in-law?
(a) His prize cow.
(b) His ability to work though he is handicapped.
(c) His willingness to cry at his daughter's wedding.
(d) His dexterity and artistry.

4. How long does the narrator have to stay indoors after the funeral?
(a) Three days.
(b) As long as it takes for her hair to grow long again.
(c) Four months and ten days.
(d) She does not have to stay indoors.

5. Why do others disapprove of Aissatou's marriage?
(a) The man she marries is Chinese.
(b) The man she marries is ugly.
(c) The man she marries is poor.
(d) Aissatou is not good enough for the man she marries.

6. What is a test feared by Senegalese women?
(a) Their sisters-in-law have to take down the new widows' hair.
(b) A test to learn if a woman is pregnant.
(c) The widow(s) have to be branded.
(d) A ritual to discover if a woman is a virgin.

7. What is another secret revealed about the deceased?
(a) He made a pact with an Inman to send his son to England.
(b) He never legally married his second wife.
(c) He had abandoned his first wife (the narrator) and her children to live with Binetou.
(d) He had four illegitimate children.

8. What does the narrator think of Aissatou's in-laws?
(a) That they should not have moved to the United States.
(b) That they do not respect Aissatou.
(c) That they are wonderfully warm people.
(d) That they take advantage of Aissatou.

9. What does the deceased do when he meets Binetou?
(a) Removes her from school.
(b) Sends her to school to learn how to manage the farmstead.
(c) Forces her to climb the Ngorongoro crator with him.
(d) Sends her to live with his brother as a third wife.

10. What is the difference between the narrator's friends and fellow teachers versus her in-laws?
(a) Her friends are modern-minded; whereas the in-laws stick to tradition.
(b) Her in-laws belong to a different political party from her friends.
(c) She is able to relax with them, which she can't do with her in-laws.
(d) Her in-laws are from Kenya, not Senegal.

11. What is the first thing the narrator says in her letter?
(a) That she has just had a baby boy.
(b) That she lost her husband today.
(c) That she has moved to Canada.
(d) That her eldest daughter is dead.

12. When did the narrator realize that Modou was the man for her for life?
(a) After he dies.
(b) When he asked her to marry him.
(c) During their first dance.
(d) When he held their first child in his arms.

13. To whom do the wives give money?
(a) No one; they keep it all for themselves.
(b) The government in the form of taxes.
(c) Their in-laws.
(d) Their children.

14. Where did Modou go for a degree?
(a) The United States.
(b) South Africa.
(c) Britian.
(d) France.

15. How might one describe the culture of the Senegal people?
(a) Complex and difficult to understand.
(b) Rigid.
(c) Adaptable.
(d) They don't really have a distinct culture separate from other African countries.

Short Answer Questions

1. When did the narrator and her husband's romance blossom?

2. Who discusses the mysteries of birth and death with the narrator?

3. According to the narrator, what is the purpose of teaching?

4. What do the narrator and her friends do at their house parties?

5. What, in the narrator's opinion, does modernity do?

(see the answer keys)

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