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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. In the opening paragraphs of Part II, Chapter 7, what aspect of the days before the Coronation is stressed?
(a) The hypocrisy.
(b) The injustice.
(c) The anxiety.
(d) The novelty.

2. How old is Mir Nihal?
(a) 69.
(b) 75.
(c) 55.
(d) 62.

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. To whom does Sheikh Mohammad Sadiq wish to marry his niece?

3. Which of his family members demonstrates sympathy for the dead pigeons and for Mir Nihal?

4. What is ironic about Asghar's characterization of their days in Bhopal as "happy" (35)?

5. Why does Mir Nihal go to the Chowk on Friday evening?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Begam Nihal tease her husband about when she calls him in to talk with him about Asghar and Bilqeece?

2. 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?

3. Describe the family's celebration of Eed (Eid).

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

5. When Mir Nihal is at the procession for the Coronation, in Chapter 8, what contrast does he see between the crowd at Jama Masjid in 1857 and the one around him at the procession?

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

7. 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?

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

9. How is Babban Jan's mother affected by her death, and what does Mir Nihal tell the woman about her concerns?

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

(see the answer keys)

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