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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Mizra Nasirul Mulk's relationship to Bahadur Shah?
(a) He is Bahadur Shah's Lord Governor's son.
(b) He is Bahadur Shah's son.
(c) He is Bahadur Shah's nephew.
(d) He is Bahadur Shah's great-grandson.

2. What does Asghar's strategy seem to be in bringing up the death of Begam Waheed's husband?
(a) He wants to flatter his sister for her courage and then elicit her pity because people do not respect him as they respect her.
(b) He wants to make her feel emotionally vulnerable so that she gratefully recalls how much she has always relied on him.
(c) He wants to remind her of how important her marriage was to her and compare this with his own feelings about marriage.
(d) He wants to trigger her yearning to be with her family so that she will be feeling especially loving toward him.

3. In Part II, Chapter 5, what do the friends agree is the missing ingredient in the Jama Masjid prescription?
(a) Heat.
(b) A bitter green herb.
(c) A golden flower.
(d) Faith.

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

5. What principle does Saeed Hasan say a man should put first when he is looking for a wife?
(a) Reciprocity.
(b) Moderation.
(c) Faithfulness.
(d) Suitability.

6. In what year do Part II, Chapters 1-4 take place?
(a) 1927.
(b) 1911.
(c) 1919.
(d) 1903.

7. While Asghar and Begam Waheed are talking about their childhood, what can Asghar hear in the background?
(a) Street vendors shouting.
(b) Pigeons cooing.
(c) Qawwals singing.
(d) His aunts arguing.

8. Besides their money, what does Begam Nihal like about Meraj's family?
(a) The father is an important religious leader.
(b) They are related to Begam Waheed's in-laws.
(c) They have connections abroad.
(d) The sisters are all well-married.

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

10. As Mir Nihal hurries to Babban Jan's on Friday night, what does he hear both a song and a poem about?
(a) Death.
(b) Love.
(c) Old age.
(d) Faith.

11. What point does the narrator make in Part II, Chapter 7 about the living descendants of Bahadur Shah?
(a) They have fallen far down in the social order.
(b) They are the rightful rulers of India.
(c) There are very few left alive.
(d) They are considered enemies by the British occupiers.

12. What does the narrator say prevents the world from being "a barren desert in which no oasis exists" (91)?
(a) Faith.
(b) Hope.
(c) Love.
(d) Charity.

13. What is implied by the snippet of poetry that Mir Nihal thinks about at the end of Part II, Chapter 1?
(a) He is unlikely to recover well from any further disappointments.
(b) He understands that his love for Babban Jan is impious.
(c) His mental state is much more precarious than others realize.
(d) He wishes that he felt about Begam Nihal the way he feels about Babban Jan.

14. When Begam Nihal tells her husband that he can buy more pigeons to replace those that have died, how does he react?
(a) He stands up and walks out of the house.
(b) He tells her about Babban Jan and her death.
(c) He announces that he is giving up flying pigeons.
(d) He tells her that she knows nothing about him or his life.

15. When Asghar arrives at Bari's house, what is his friend doing?
(a) Reading a book of poetry.
(b) Kite fighting.
(c) Flying pigeons.
(d) Smoking a hookah.

Short Answer Questions

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

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

3. By what year does the Introduction say the British East India Company had established control of India?

4. Which residents of Delhi are described in the first page and a half of Part II, Chapter 6?

5. Where does Mir Nihal go on most evenings after dinner in Part I?

(see the answer keys)

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