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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Maali's Ear Check reveal?

2. What can Maali still not remember?

3. What is the name of the house that Maali remembers growing up in?

4. What color is the sari that the woman in wearing?

5. What does Maali watch Kottu and Balal doing?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Maali think is happening when he first wakes in the In Between?

2. What experiences indicate to Maali that he is dead?

3. Why does Maali feel as if his life has been a waste?

4. Why do Ranchagoda and Cassim visit Hotel Leo?

5. What are the photo negatives symbolic of?

6. In the opening section of the novel, “First Moon,” why does the author use the main character Maali’s second person point of view?

7. Who and what does Maali see on the Hotel Leo rooftop?

8. Why is Maali eager to make contact with his friends?

9. What does Maali's ear check ultimately reveal?

10. What is Maali trying to remember while on his mission?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

"Why is Sri Lanka Number One in suicides?" asks the girl peering through thick glasses. "Are we that much sadder or violent than the rest of the world?" "Who the fuck cares?" says the hunched figure, as a lady in pigtails does her high jump over the edge. "It’s because we have just the right amount of education to understand that the world is cruel," says the schoolgirl. "And just enough corruption and inequality to feel powerless against it" (285).

What might this excerpt from the text say about social conditions within Sri Lanka during the civil war, and why was the suicide rate in the country so high?

Essay Topic 2

Maali’s character is complex. At the beginning of the novel readers are told, "If you had a business card, this is what it would say: Maali Almeida. Photographer. Gambler. Slut." (1). Yet despite his flaws, the Booker judges described him as ‘wonderful company’ and ‘cheerfully unapologetic about what others might see as his failings’. What is it about Maali’s character that makes him so likable?

Essay Topic 3

What is the significance of the mara tree? What does Maali think about while in the mara tree with Sena?

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