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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 sort of literary device is utilized by Lalami when Señor Ruíz insists that he will not "wait for the savages to hunt [him] down like a partridge" (122)?
(a) Personification.
(b) Onomatopoeia.
(c) Hyperbole.
(d) Simile.

2. The slave trader told Señor Dorantes that Mustafa, whom he called Esteban, would be a valuable asset to the expedition due to his skills in what area?
(a) Medicine.
(b) Cartography.
(c) Cooking.
(d) Languages.

3. What sound first alerted Mustafa to the possibility that women were being abducted from the mound by members of the expedition?
(a) A moan.
(b) A scream.
(c) A sigh.
(d) A bark.

4. What object was the pebble touching when Mustafa found it in the village of a dozen huts?
(a) A fishing net.
(b) A cooking pot.
(c) A blanket.
(d) A sweater.

5. What crime did several men from the expedition commit once they had abducted young women from the mound?
(a) Murder.
(b) Theft.
(c) Assault.
(d) Rape.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Mustafa's Uncle Omar, the Portuguese army that occupied Azemmur in Mustafa's youth and then took the city in the Battle of Azemmur numbered how many thousand men?

2. How many husbands did Heniya, Mustafa's mother, have before she married Mustafa's father?

3. What crime did the soldiers commit in the village of a dozen huts that caused Mustafa to feel guilty for having no power to stop the soldiers?

4. Mustafa recalls hearing whose voice calling out to him as he left the house to sell himself so that his family would not starve?

5. In Heniya's story about the embroiderer and the caftans, what happens at the end of the story when the girl is found to be useless with a lute?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Estabanico and how does the narrator feel about the name?

2. How did Señor Ruíz come to lose an eye during the march toward Aute?

3. What major plot development involving "nearly thirty men" (127) occurs by the fifth day of the armada's march toward Aute?

4. How did Mustafa react to his father's plans for Mustafa's future career?

5. Who were the main leaders of the expedition to La Florida? Name one fact about each leader.

6. In what way does Lalami depict the theme of family bonds within Chapter 5: "The Story of the March"?

7. Discuss an instance when Lalami uses an unconventional metaphor within the text.

8. How old was Mustafa when his father first shared with him his plans for Mustafa's future career and what details did he share?

9. With what element of life did Mustafa become too entranced, causing him to eventually name it among the causes of his downfall?

10. In what way does Lalami include the theme of invisibility in the Prologue of the novel?

(see the answer keys)

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