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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 brand of rat poison does Meena use?

2. How many rupees is the fine for spitting in the courthouse?

3. Which of the following is celebrated by belly-flopping in the text?

4. Where do Kalu’s father and brother go to find work?

5. How long does the train ride take that carries Asha and her family back to her hometown?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Sunil know that almonds have ripened?

2. To what does Meena’s family ascribe her death?

3. In the text, how are fast-track trials conducted?

4. How does Manju plan to escape an arranged marriage to a rural soldier?

5. What prompts Asha to berate Manju for her teaching work?

6. Why is Navrarti welcomed by the local girls?

7. What role does Manju typically play in her community group’s training?

8. What familial duty does Manju carry out at the wedding in her mother’s hometown?

9. Why does Rahul decline to help the injured scavenger he sees beside the road?

10. Why had Sunil and Sonu fallen out previously?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Typically, an epigraph is expected to speak to or set the tone for the work it introduces. Does the epigraph of Behind the Beautiful Forevers do so for the present book? How or how not?

Essay Topic 2

Section divisions, their titles, and chapter numbering / division schema are all components of paratext. That is, they are not part of the text but are associated with it closely and affect its meaning. What significance, if any, accrues to the chapter-numbering scheme at work in Behind the Beautiful Forevers? If there is significance, how does that significance manifest? If there is not, what in the book supports the paratextual divisions that are in place?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the quotation prefacing Part Two: The Business of Burning: “Rich people fight about stupid things. Why shouldn’t poor people do the same?” (69). To what extent does it correspond with the contents of the book as a whole? What in the text shows as much, and how does it do so?

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