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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 kind of people are Ashima's neighbors in her first home in America?
(a) Families of professors at Harvard.
(b) Other immigrants from India.
(c) Out-of-work Americans.
(d) A mix of peoples from all over the world.

2. When does the idea to change his name first occur to Gogol?
(a) When school officials can't pronounce his given name.
(b) When Sonia tells him people laugh behind his back.
(c) When relatives in India tell him it's not an Indian name.
(d) When reading an issue of Readers Digest.

3. What about the house becomes one of Gogol's earliest memories?
(a) His parents discussing how to furnish their new home.
(b) The sound of the kids next door playing baseball.
(c) The movement of the sun's rays across his bedroom floor.
(d) Playing in the dirt because there is no yard yet.

4. How do Gogol and his friends celebrate his fourteenth birthday party?
(a) They have pizzas and watched a baseball game on TV.
(b) They go to a pizza parlor where they play video games.
(c) They go swimming at a nearby pool.
(d) They got to a baseball game and have pizza afterwards.

5. In what type of neighborhood do the Gangulis finally purchase a home?
(a) An ordinary area where plastic wading pools are left out on the lawns.
(b) Where Ashoke can get to work quickly.
(c) In an historic area where they will be steeped in tradition.
(d) In the country, where there are no neighbors to look down on them.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why doesn't the Ganguli baby get the name it was supposed to get before leaving the hospital?

2. Why does Gogol's father take him to his first day of kindergarten?

3. What bad news does Ashima receive from her family in India soon after Gogol's birth?

4. What difference does Ashima notice in her days before and after Gogol's birth?

5. Why doesn't Ashoke explain how Gogol came about his name when he gives him the book by Nikoli Gogol?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when Gogol's train coming home from college is late?

2. What is Ashima doing when her water breaks?

3. How does Gogol react to the gifts he receives at his fourteenth birthday party?

4. How does Gogol feel about his family during visits home from college?

5. What does Ashoke think about while Ashima is in labor?

6. How do Ashima and Ashoke feel about Ruth when they learn of their son's girlfriend?

7. What do the Gangulis do differently when naming their daughter Sonali than they did when Gogol was born?

8. What type of home do the Gangulis settle down in to raise their family?

9. What happens when Gogol wants to see his girlfriend, Ruth, over the Christmas holidays?

10. Why aren't Ashoke and Ashima concerned that they don't have a name picked out before the birth of their child?

(see the answer keys)

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