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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 memory of the train wreck still haunts Ashima, even after his marriage and starting a new life in America?
(a) The cries of the people trapped inside.
(b) The terrible silence after that first, wrenching crash.
(c) The twisted, battered, capsized bogies of the train.
(d) The still sky above such a terrible scene.

2. How does a book save Ashoke's life?
(a) It doesn't have anything to do with his survival.
(b) It stops a piece of flying metal that could have killed him.
(c) The book is like a warning and he avoids disaster.
(d) He is reading it and, thus, is in a safe place during the train wreck.

3. What happens to Ashoke and Ashima within a decade of moving to America?
(a) They seldom know what's going on with their families in India.
(b) They both become orphans.
(c) They become true Americans.
(d) They lose touch with their families in India.

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

5. Where does Gogol first begin to introduce himself to people as Nikhil?
(a) At the bank where he gets a school loan.
(b) As soon as he gets home he introduces his new self to his family.
(c) His first day of school in New Haven.
(d) At the park where a little boy asks his name.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Gogol give his mother as a gift when his baby sister is born?

2. What does Ashoke remember when he and Ashima bring Gogol home?

3. What concerns Ashima about Sonia as she grows up?

4. What is the one complication about Gogol/Nikhil's new name?

5. How does Gogol go about changing his school documents that were completed using the name Gogol?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Ashoke do for Gogol's fourteenth birthday?

2. What does Ashima think of the name Gogol that is chosen by her husband for their baby?

3. How are the Ganguli family plans changed while preparing for a visit to India when Gogol is a year old?

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

5. At college after changing his name, how does Gogol react to being called by his new name?

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

7. Why doesn't Ashima's grandmother name their grandchild as Ashima and Ashoke requested?

8. Who befriends Ashima at the hospital and how?

9. What does Gogol decide to do when he turns eighteen?

10. What do the Ganguli family do during Ashoke's sabbatical?

(see the answer keys)

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