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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. In the opening paragraphs of Part II, Chapter 7, what aspect of the days before the Coronation is stressed?

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

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

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the cat end up getting into Mir Nihal's pigeon loft?

2. What is Begam Jamal's motive for promoting the marriage of Asghar and Bilqeece?

3. What criticisms does Mir Nihal make about his son Asghar in Chapter 1?

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

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. What does Asghar dream about in Chapter 2?

7. 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?

8. What contrast do Begam Jamal and Begam Nihal make between the processions held by Mughal emperors and their expectations for the procession about to be held by the English?

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

10. What is the Ghadar of 1857?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the significance of Bahadur Shah in Twilight in Delhi. Be sure to offer textual support for your ideas.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that analyzes the symbolic significance of pigeons in Twilight in Delhi. Be sure to offer evidence of their use throughout the text and not simply in the early chapters where Mir Nihal keeps them as a hobby. If you use outside sources to research their significance in Islamic culture, cite these in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that analyzes the use of the pathetic fallacy in Twilight in Delhi. Support your claims with evidence from the text.

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