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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. Where did Bakha acquire a taste for the Western way of life?
(a) Traveling with his uncle.
(b) At his British-run school.
(c) Working in a British barracks.
(d) Playing hockey in other towns.

2. Why did a rich merchant once give Lakha a buffalo cow?
(a) He was advised to do this because he wanted sons.
(b) He owed Lakha a year's back wages for sweeping at his home and shop.
(c) It was a part of the merchant's daughter's wedding festivities.
(d) His father had owed a debt to Lakha's father before both men died.

3. What is a "sepoy" (5)?
(a) A temple priest.
(b) A rag-seller.
(c) A town official.
(d) An Indian soldier.

4. What is so soothing to Bakha about the smaller street, familiar to him since childhood, that he turns into when he leaves the crowded bazaar?
(a) The feeling of the much cooler air against his skin.
(b) The sound of the children playing marbles.
(c) The smell of spices from the spice merchants' shops.
(d) The sight of the English musical instruments.

5. On page 9, what does the narrator compare Bakha's capacity for work to?
(a) Water flowing from a stream.
(b) The shining of glass.
(c) Wind shaking the leaves.
(d) The burning of a fire.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the narrator referring to when he describes Bakha wanting to speak the "tish-mish, tish-mish" (30)?

2. What habit of the British soldiers did Bakha find "Disgraceful" (12)?

3. When the priest claims to have been "defiled by contact," what does Bakha assume (51)?

4. What does the narrator say that the word "sahib" refers to (5)?

5. What did Lakha borrow money from Ganesh Nath, the bania, to pay for?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Describe Bakha's initial reaction to the man who accuses him of bumping him on the street.

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

4. Describe Bakha's father.

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

6. What work do Bakha and his family do?

7. Which habits of Indian people does Bakha find crude and unsophisticated?

8. What altercation does Sohini get into at the well, and why does it happen?

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

10. What does the description of the town as Bakha enters it emphasize, and how does this foreshadow what will happen later, when Bakha bumps into someone?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,062 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample