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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 causes Bakha to pause before entering the town?
(a) He is enjoying the sunshine.
(b) He sees his friends coming toward him.
(c) He is dreading going into the town.
(d) He hears his sister calling from their house.

2. What is ironic about Bakha's friends teasing him about his interest in "fashun" (26)?
(a) They do not even know what the word means.
(b) They are not trying to be cruel.
(c) They are the ones who first encouraged his interest.
(d) They share this interest.

3. What habit of Indian people in this time period was the basis of a derogatory description used by the British soldiers?
(a) Bathing in water polluted by human and animal waste.
(b) Using water to clear out their noses and sinuses.
(c) Blowing repeatedly on tea and hot food to cool it.
(d) Squatting to urinate and defecate on the ground.

4. Which character are people speaking of when they say that he is "a bit superior to his job" (9)?
(a) Lakha.
(b) Rakha.
(c) Bakha.
(d) Charat Singh.

5. On page 6, what do the outcaste boys start calling Bakha after he starts wearing British clothing?
(a) "O bey brother-in-law."
(b) "Sergeant Sweeper."
(c) "Imitation sahib."
(d) "Bakha-Britain."

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the passage about the cheap nickel jewelry reveal about Bakha?

2. Why does Bahka not immediately apologize when he is accused of bumping the man in the street?

3. What finally rouses Bakha from his bed at the beginning of the book?

4. What does the narrator say is "a sort of intoxication" for Bakha (11)?

5. What does the narrator say Charat Singh's offer "called forth" in Bakha (10)?

Short Essay Questions

1. What seeming contradictions does Bakha notice in the treatment of cows?

2. What mixture of feelings does Bakha have about Sohini as they make their way home from the temple?

3. Describe the dynamic between Bakha and his friends.

4. How does Bakha feel as he enters the temple courtyard, and why does he have these feelings?

5. Besides the accidental bumping, what seems to most offend the man and the crowd that gathers?

6. What is implied by the narrator's description of how Bakha seems somehow allied with the fire?

7. What seems ironic to Bakha when he thinks about the reason that schools will not admit outcaste students?

8. On his way into town, how does Bakha light his cigarette, and what does this incident demonstrate about how his caste status impacts his beliefs about himself?

9. What is the "fashun" that Bakha and his friends adhere to, and why do they do it? (4)

10. Describe the conditions in which Bakha's family lives.

(see the answer keys)

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