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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When Rakha taunts Bakha and refuses to give up the broom, how does Bakha feel?
(a) He thinks Rakha is just being a child and still loves him.
(b) He worries that Rakha's personality will isolate him from others.
(c) He is filled with jealousy over his father's favoritism.
(d) He is shocked at the wave of hatred he feels for his brother.

2. What caste does the cook assume Bakha is a member of?
(a) Grass-cutters.
(b) Water-carriers.
(c) Washermen.
(d) Sweepers.

3. What event starts the fight between the two hockey teams?
(a) Ram Charan insults another player.
(b) The players discover Chota's lie.
(c) The babu's younger son insists on being the referee.
(d) Bakha scores a goal.

4. What is Chota's reaction to Bakha's new hockey stick?
(a) He is pleased for his friend.
(b) He does not understand why Bakha cares about it so much.
(c) He is filled with envy.
(d) He is fearful of the obligation it represents.

5. How does the narrator characterize Bakha's response to nature?
(a) It is spontaneous.
(b) It is exaggerated.
(c) It is artificial.
(d) It is superficial.

6. What does Bakha stop to do on his way home from the hockey game?
(a) Beg for water at the well.
(b) Hide his stick.
(c) Retrieve the sugar plums he hid for later.
(d) See more of Ram Charan's sister's wedding.

7. Who throws the rock that strikes the babu's younger son?
(a) Ram Charan.
(b) Chota.
(c) Bakha.
(d) The babu's elder son.

8. After he is thrown out of his house, what irony does Bakha see in his father's behavior?
(a) His father is really the lazy one, and yet Bakha is the one who has been turned out of the house.
(b) His father is cruel to him, yet this is also the same father who begged for medicine for him.
(c) All Bakha wanted to do was get the broom and go clean, as his father wanted him to do.
(d) His father has punished him by throwing him out, but Bakha does not want to be at home, anyway.

9. Why does Rakha feel safe from Bakha's criticism?
(a) Their father favors him.
(b) Rakha is stronger and bigger than Bakha.
(c) He knows the Bakha is only teasing.
(d) Rakha is the elder brother.

10. What do both Bakha's earlier dreams and his experience at the wedding demonstrate about him?
(a) He depends on his friends to keep him grounded.
(b) He enjoys the stimulation of being with a crowd.
(c) He is emotionally responsive to music.
(d) He is sometimes narrow-minded and judgmental.

11. What was the family's purpose in putting Bakha on the floor when he was so ill?
(a) They hoped the cooler air near the floor would help with his fever.
(b) They wanted him to be able to die close to the earth.
(c) They needed space in the bed for the younger children.
(d) They were performing a ritual intended to solicit divine intervention.

12. What is a "sadhu"?
(a) An ascetic holy man.
(b) A tax collector.
(c) A beggar.
(d) A street performer.

13. What are the "ghats by the waterside" (76)?
(a) Fires.
(b) Boats.
(c) Huts.
(d) Steps.

14. When Chota says that he does not want the babu's younger son to play in the game because he might get hurt, what devices are being employed?
(a) Situational and dramatic irony.
(b) Foreshadowing and situational irony.
(c) Dramatic and verbal irony.
(d) Verbal irony and foreshadowing.

15. When Bakha returns home, what does it seem to him his father has been doing all day?
(a) Grooming himself.
(b) Gambling with friends.
(c) Sleeping.
(d) Ruminating on his children's failings.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Lakha's point in telling the story about when Bakha was gravely ill as a child?

2. Why does Ram Charan remove his solar hat as the three friends walk back from the spring?

3. What does Bakha anticipate his father's reaction will be if he tells him about his day's problems?

4. How is Bakha feeling when he first arrives and surveys the happy wedding crowd?

5. How does Bakha feel about Charat Singh, most of the time?

(see the answer keys)

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