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

2. What rumor has Mir Nihal heard about Nisar Ahmad?
(a) He sells impure ghee in his business.
(b) He has rare dappled pigeons for sale.
(c) He uses powerful charms to acquire customers.
(d) He has a Farangi girlfriend.

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

4. What advice does Bari give Asghar about his love life?
(a) He should marry Mushtari Bai.
(b) He should contact his sister in Bhopal for her help.
(c) He should buy charms to help him persuade his father.
(d) Loving is not as satisfying as is being loved.

5. What was the cause of Asghar, Begam Waheed, and Begam Nihal being sent away to live somewhere else when Asghar was a child?
(a) Asghar had angered his father.
(b) Mir Nihal could not afford to keep everyone in his house.
(c) Begam Nihal was mentally unwell.
(d) Begam Waheed had an interest in a boy the family disliked.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did Mir Nihal forbid Asghar to study at Aligarh?

2. Who is the poet who wrote the words to the song that Gul Bano sings?

3. What does the Part II, Chapter 5 description of Red Beard stress?

4. What is the organizing strategy of the introduction's opening?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Ahmed Ali write Twilight in Delhi in English?

2. When Asghar sees the sad-looking old man on the street, what realization does he have about his own life, and why?

3. What does Kambal Shah say caused the loss of the Mugal Empire?

4. What idea of Mir Nihal's comes up again when he discusses the marriage of Sheikh Mohammad Sadiq's niece, and how is he distracted from pursuing it?

5. What does Khwaja Ashraf Ali notice about Mir Nihal on Thursday, and why does he react the way he reacts when he learns the cause, on Friday?

6. Who is Saeed Hasan, and why does he come to visit Begam Nihal?

7. Explain the trick Mir Nihal plays on his neighbor with his pigeons.

8. What does the reader learn in Chapter 3 about Mir Nihal's real reason for working at the lace shop, and how does this shed light on his feelings about his family?

9. How did Asghar come to be raised in Bhopal?

10. Who is Hameed, and what light does Asghar think Hameed's situation throws on his own?

(see the answer keys)

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