View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the narrator referring to when he describes Bakha wanting to speak the "tish-mish, tish-mish" (30)?
(a) A higher-status dialect of Hindi.
(b) The language of Bakha's Muslim neighbors.
(c) Hindu ritual chants and prayers.
(d) The sounds of spoken English.

2. What is Lakha's purpose in having Sohini call for her brothers?
(a) He wants to ask them about Lachman's intentions toward Sohini.
(b) He needs them to escort Sohini to and from the temple.
(c) He wants to scold them for not doing their work properly.
(d) He intends to get them to do his work as well as their own.

3. What is the image in the model temple at the base of the banyan tree?
(a) An elephant.
(b) A snake.
(c) A monkey.
(d) A tiger.

4. What are the walls of the houses of the outcastes made of?
(a) Mud.
(b) Sheets of tin.
(c) Scavenged lumber.
(d) Stone.

5. What does the narrator explain with the phrase "set a thief to catch a thief" (38)?
(a) The corruption of the Indian police.
(b) The anger of the crowd around Bakha.
(c) The dishonesty of the street urchin.
(d) The aggression of the man Bakha bumped.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the job of the young man who is interested in Sohini?

2. Why do the outcastes gather in a crowd at the well?

3. What does Sohini first tell her brother the priest did to her?

4. How old is Bakha?

5. What gesture does Bakha continuously make in order to try to placate the man that he has bumped on the street?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What work do Bakha and his family do?

3. Describe the dynamic between Bakha and his friends.

4. 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?

5. When Bakha has the urge to run away from the man yelling at him in the street, why does he feel he cannot run?

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

7. How do the incidents that take place with Bakha and Sohini at the temple reinforce the text's claims about power and status?

8. Describe Bakha's morning before he leaves his family's house.

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

10. Why is the man that Bakha bumps into in the street so angry?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,196 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample