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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 year was Abou Zayd born?

2. Where did Zahra live during the first year of her marriage?

3. Where does Zahra's husband go to jail?

4. What was attacked in 570 A.D.?

5. What can Zahra and her husband not discuss while at the jail?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Faqih dislike the French?

2. What did Zahra's parents do for a living and why was it dangerous?

3. What is a "caid"?

4. Who raised Zahra and why could she not go back to their home?

5. What was Zahra's experience at Al-Adir?

6. Why does Zahra go to the post office in Chapter 3?

7. Why does the author of the introduction claim that "Year of the Elephant" is "an event in cross-cultural literary history"?

8. Why did Faqih not want the woman's group to store items in his home?

9. Describe Zahra's mood at the start of Chapter 4. Why does she feel this way?

10. What happens to Zahra's husband in Chapter 4? How does she find out?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When considering Abu Zayd's life, where do you believe she found the inspiration for her book? What does this book cause you to think about the author's life? Why was her book the first to translated from Arabic to English?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the religious holiday Ramadan and the role it plays in the story "Silence". What is the significance how how the characters react to this holiday?

Essay Topic 3

Analyze the interaction between the men in the story "The Discontented". How are the men different from one another? What occurs at the end of the story that sets the two men further apart?

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