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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 did Zikora's mother do after Zikora accepted food at Aunty Nwanneka's house when they went to visit her new baby?

2. How does the narrator feel about the way the nurse tells her she is not progressing?

3. What is the name of Zikora's brother from her father's second wife?

4. What country did the narrator read has the highest maternal mortality rate?

5. What does Zikora's mother say when asked if she can help still Zikora for the epidural?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay exploring "Zikora: A Short Story" through a feminist lens. What scenes or memories speak to the female experience?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay analyzing Adichie’s choice to tell the novel from first person point-of-view. Discuss how this point-of-view impacts the reader’s experience. Using direct examples from the text, explain why this point-of-view is or is not an effective choice.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay describing the imagery used in “Zikora: A Short Story.” Indicate examples of imagery in the text and identify possible meanings.

(see the answer keys)

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