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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Section 3: Part II, Chapters 1-4.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What caused Ahmed Ali to be unable to return to India?
(a) The Indian government's anger over his writings.
(b) The outbreak of World War I.
(c) His decision to renounce his Indian citizenship.
(d) The partition of India and Pakistan.

2. What is the main subject of Part I, Chapter 5?
(a) The typical daily routines of the Nihal household.
(b) The decline of the city of Delhi.
(c) The relationship between Asghar and Bilqeece.
(d) The symbolic importance of Mir Nihal's pigeons.

3. What does Mushtari Bai mean when she compares Asghar to "the moon of Eed" (53)?
(a) She suspects that Asghar has fallen in love with someone else.
(b) She feels betrayed by the way Asghar has treated her.
(c) She knows that Asghar does not really love her.
(d) She gets frustrated waiting to see Asghar.

4. What is ironic about Asghar's characterization of their days in Bhopal as "happy" (35)?
(a) The reader is aware that Asghar is not really capable of happiness.
(b) The two stories he recalls from that time are not really happy ones.
(c) He has repeatedly told Bundoo how unhappy he was in Bhopal.
(d) Begam Waheed argued against him being sent to live with her.

5. Why does Mir Nihal not go into work on Saturday after a cat attacked his pigeons?
(a) He no longer sees a point in working.
(b) He is exhausted and sleeps all day instead.
(c) The shop is closed for the weekend.
(d) He is too sad about the pigeons.

Short Answer Questions

1. What event are workers being forced to work in the extreme heat in preparation for?

2. To what animal does the narrator compare the city of Delhi in the story's opening pages?

3. On page 53, what does Mushtari Bai compare herself to?

4. What was the cause of Asghar, Begam Waheed, and Begam Nihal being sent away to live somewhere else when Asghar was a child?

5. What does Ali say caused the British paranoia about Muslim scholars that resulted in their violent suppression of the "Wahabi" conspiracy (xii)?

(see the answer key)

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