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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 does Bakha see in the street outside of town that he reminds himself his mother told him was good luck to see?
(a) Animal bones.
(b) A lost coin.
(c) A human corpse.
(d) A red bird.

2. What does Bakha buy from the betel-leaf shop?
(a) Matches.
(b) Cigarettes.
(c) Tea.
(d) Medicine.

3. What animals does the man that Bakha bumps in the street repeatedly compare Bakha to?
(a) A pig and a goat.
(b) A monkey and a dog.
(c) A dog and a pig.
(d) A goat and a monkey.

4. Who are the few men who come to the latrines wearing long white tunics and loose trousers?
(a) Muslims.
(b) Priests.
(c) Fakirs.
(d) Sepoys.

5. Why is the younger of the babu's sons so eager to get going during their conversation with Bakha and his friends?
(a) He is afraid his mother will catch them talking to outcastes.
(b) He does not want to be late to school.
(c) He does not want to risk ritual pollution.
(d) He knows that there are sweets waiting for him at home.

Short Answer Questions

1. On page 28, what does the narrator say prevails in the lives of the outcastes?

2. What habit of Indian people in this time period was the basis of a derogatory description used by the British soldiers?

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

4. What is Bakha's first response when he hears the priest cry out "Polluted, polluted, polluted" (50)?

5. What is the image in the model temple at the base of the banyan tree?

Short Essay Questions

1. What work do Bakha and his family do?

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

3. What rhetorical purpose is served by the long passage in which Pundit Kali Nath thinks about all of the foods he has recently eaten?

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

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

6. Describe the job that Bakha does after he has cleaned all of the latrines twice.

7. How does the incident with the crowd in the street draw to a close, finally?

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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