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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. What question does Harry ask Battersby when they are on their way to the store?
(a) Whether Jean has a boyfriend.
(b) How Alfonso and Poor got White girlfriends.
(c) In what part of London they should look for a house.
(d) Whether he knows any calypso songs.

2. What reason does Nobby give for thinking that Harry will not be able to make a success of his singing career?
(a) He sings the wrong kind of music.
(b) He is Black.
(c) He is easy to manipulate.
(d) He is not talented.

3. Why is Battersby thinking about money while he makes his morning tea?
(a) He is behind on his rent payments.
(b) He is almost out of tea and other basic supplies.
(c) He has just lost his job.
(d) His sister has asked him for a loan.

4. As Poor approaches his friends in the market, what detail of his appearance does the narrator mention?
(a) He always has his hands in his pockets.
(b) He walks with a barely noticeable limp.
(c) He has a habit of looking at the ground as he walks.
(d) He has a dimple on his left cheek, but not his right.

5. How did Fitz meet Teena?
(a) She worked with Syl.
(b) She is Nobby's cousin.
(c) She lived in Poor's building.
(d) She was Alfy's girlfriend.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Gallows go to the market one Saturday afternoon?

2. What is the name of Battersby's sister?

3. When Poor and Harry are smoking in the park, what question does Harry ask?

4. What does the narrator say is "the biggest thing that ever happen to Gallows" (37)?

5. What does Harry plan to do to make "some big money" (15)?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Harry end up holding onto Poor's pack of cigarettes for him?

2. Which of Bat's friends takes photographs, and what is comical about how he does it?

3. Describe the talent of Battersby's that the narrator talks about on pages 6 and 7.

4. How does the sentence "I mean, you think it have a lot of obeah and black magic in the West Indies, but if you listen to some of these Nordics" illustrate the unusual aspects of this book's narrative voice?

5. How did Gallows come to meet Battersby and his friends?

6. What does Battersby mean when he tells Alfonso that the weather forecaster is talking about "depression and high pressure" and that these are "things the boys know about" (4)?

7. Why does the narrator say that weather forecasters should be "diplomats" (4)?

8. What observations does the narrator make about hidden ambition before telling the story of how Gallows came to England?

9. Describe Battersby's apartment.

10. What is ironic about the difference between the food Battersby imagines on page 2 and the food he genuinely likes?

(see the answer keys)

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