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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Who is Colonel Hutchinson?
(a) The head of the local Salvation Army.
(b) An officer from the British barracks Bakha used to clean.
(c) The babu whose son was injured at the hockey game.
(d) The commander of the cantonment.

3. Why does Bakha decide it would be best not to let Ram Charan know about the hockey stick?
(a) Ram Charan might tell Lakha about how Bakha has spent the afternoon.
(b) Ram Charan might go to Charat Singh and ask for a similar hockey stick.
(c) Ram Charan might try to steal the stick for himself.
(d) Ram Charan might tease him about it and spoil the joy of the gift.

4. What has Gulabo accused Bakha of, in the past?
(a) Defiling her home by coming too near it.
(b) Encouraging Ram Charan to neglect his duties.
(c) Having an inappropriate interest in her daughter.
(d) Stealing pieces of clothing from their customers' washing.

5. What does Charat Singh share with Bakha?
(a) His cigarettes.
(b) Food.
(c) Tea.
(d) His hookah.

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

7. What does Bakha do after he sits down in the alley where he has been unable to get any attention from the houses?
(a) He begins to weep.
(b) He falls asleep.
(c) He prays.
(d) He plots revenge against the priest.

8. Why does Bakha think that it is unlikely he will be able to lie to his father about the morning's events?
(a) Gossip spreads quickly in the outcastes' colony.
(b) Rakha will have already hurried home to tell his father.
(c) The priest will have already sent a complaint to his father.
(d) His father will have already asked Sohini why she is home early.

9. What emotion does Bakha struggle with as his father tells the story of the time he was so ill as a child?
(a) Scorn.
(b) Rage.
(c) Self-pity.
(d) Fear.

10. Why does Bakha feel sympathy for the younger of the babu's sons?
(a) He knows that the little boy gets into trouble for spending time with Bakha.
(b) He knows that the babu favors his older son.
(c) He knows how desperate the little boy is to play in the game.
(d) He knows that the boy's older brother often neglects him.

11. What is Lakha's point in telling the story about when Bakha was gravely ill as a child?
(a) The caste system can seem unfair, but eventually everyone gets what they deserve.
(b) He has done a lot for Bakha and deserves better treatment from his son.
(c) The upper castes can be good people who try to help the outcastes.
(d) He loves Bakha more than it seems like he does.

12. Why is Lakha so eager to talk to the town's families about when their daughters will get married?
(a) He is looking for a wife for himself.
(b) He is hoping to get extra work during the wedding festivities.
(c) He wants to find Bakha a wife.
(d) He looks forward to the scraps from the wedding feast.

13. How does Bakha feel about Charat Singh, most of the time?
(a) He admires Charat Singh and is grateful to him.
(b) He is suspicious of Charat Singh's motives.
(c) He is nervous about the man's temper.
(d) He wishes that Charat Singh were his father.

14. What is Bakha asking for when he shouts up at the houses from the street?
(a) Coins.
(b) Water.
(c) Bread.
(d) Sweets.

15. What do all of the stories about the solar topee have in common?
(a) They point out corruption in the military.
(b) They create respect for the rule of law.
(c) They stress the authority of the sahibs.
(d) They highlight economic inequality in India.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What does the first woman in the alley houses repeatedly tell Bakha?

3. What does Bakha discover about the stick that Charat Singh gave the babu's younger son?

4. What word does Lakha use to address the doctor in his story?

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

(see the answer keys)

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