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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. How does the narrator's mother respond to her expression of pain during labor?
(a) She talks her through the pain.
(b) She is unmoved.
(c) She cannot bear to see her in pain and leaves the room.
(d) She is gentle.

2. How old was Zikora when her father married a second wife?
(a) 9.
(b) 8.
(c) 12.
(d) 16.

3. What does Zikora's mother say when asked if she can help still Zikora for the epidural?
(a) She can manage.
(b) My pleasure.
(c) Anything to help my child.
(d) She does not need an epidural.

4. How does the narrator feel about the way the nurse tells her she is not progressing?
(a) She feels soothed.
(b) She feels she is being blamed.
(c) She feels something is wrong.
(d) She feels confused.

5. What did Zikora's mother say when her husband's second wife offered them fish and plantains when they came to visit the new baby?
(a) She said they already ate.
(b) She said she hates fish.
(c) She said she would never eat food in their house.
(d) She ignored the offered.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Zikora feel when Kwame expresses his disapproval for the way Emmanuel treats Mmiliaku?

2. What does the nurse tell the narrator she will get soon when the narrator asks for it at the beginning of the story?

3. What does the narrator do before moving to the edge of the bed and vomiting?

4. What word becomes Zikora and Kwame's word to describe a variety of things after they begin dating?

5. What about the smaller nurse bothers Zikora to the point that she decides she will write a complaint after?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what ways did Kwame seem different than most successful, Black men Zikora knew?

2. What is the dynamic between mother and daughter at the beginning of "Zikora: A Short Story"?

3. Who does Zikora think of when she becomes so tired she feels like she could die right there, and what happened to this person?

4. Why does Zikora feel she is disgracing her mother in the labor room?

5. Why does Kwame's reaction to Zikora's pregnancy surprise her?

6. What happened when Zikora was nine and went to see Aunty Nwanneka's new son, Ugonna?

7. What do the nurses continually tell Zikora at the beginning of the story, which she feels they are blaming Zikora for?

8. How does Zikora interact with Dr. K when he first appears in the story and she tells him something must be wrong?

9. How is Zikora's cousin Mmiliaku's husband Emmanuel described?

10. Where is the narrator at the start of "Zikora: A Short Story," why, and what relative is with her?

(see the answer keys)

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