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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. How long had Mervyn and Doris been married when she took him clothes after he stripped, jumped off a train, and rushed into the Kadugannawa tunnel?

2. How much of a dowry did the woman have that Lalla tried to get her brother to marry?

3. When was Mervyn banned from the Ceylon Railways?

4. Where did Doris and Mervyn go in Nuwara Eliya to try to repair their marriage?

5. What gear was the car in when the transmission broke?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Lalla's father throw caution to the wind when he married a Dickman?

2. How did Mervyn nearly kill his three older children?

3. How did Michael get a bath when he was five and attending a boarding school?

4. When Mervyn was in his twenties, why did he stop a train ten miles out of Colombo?

5. Why couldn't Mervyn stand Lalla?

6. What did Lalla do when Shelton de Saram broke their engagement?

7. What was Michael's Aunt Dolly like?

8. Michael recorded sounds of the night in the jungle when he was in Ceylon. What did he hear when he played the tape back in Canada?

9. How did Michael describe the only picture he had of his parents together?

10. What happened to the eggs that Willie Gratiaen imported from Australia?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Mervyn had an obsession with trains. Discuss why Mervyn's train rides became notorious.

Essay Topic 2

Michael referred to Lalla as an eccentric. Discuss eccentricity and why Lala was considered to be eccentric.

Essay Topic 3

Michael indicated that resthouses were an old tradition in Ceylon. Discuss resthouses and the dispute concerning resthouses.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 878 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample