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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 were Hosna and Wad buried?

2. What did the narrator do with the candles in the triangular room?

3. Where did the narrator go to after leaving Mustafa's house?

4. What did the narrator relate his knowledge of the women in the pictures to?

5. How was the weather when the narrator drove out of his village?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did the narrator do with the triangular room, after he's finished there?

2. What were all the things that are tangled up, according to the narrator?

3. During the car trip, the narrator decided to write somebody. Who did he want to write and why?

4. What does Hosna tell the narrator about Mustafa when he visited her one day?

5. What did the narrator think about the people in the pictures?

6. How did the busy day of driving end for the narrator and his driver?

7. Mahjoub and the narrator have a short conversation about Khartoum. What did they talk about? What did the narrator not talk about?

8. Who met the narrator when he arrives by steamer, not too long after he had left, and what do they talk about?

9. What did Mahjoub tell the narrator about Mustafa?

10. How does the book end?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout the book, a lot of people talk about Mustafa to the narrator. Summarize the information the narrator collects about Mustafa. Who does the narrator meet that talks to him about Mustafa? In which circumstances does this happen? What does the narrator learn about Mustafa? What is being said? How does he react to this information? What is said about Mustafa that is contradictory with the narrator's information? Who, of all these people with information, actually met Mustafa in person? Why do you think all these people talk about Mustafa and praise him? How do you think the narrator feels about this?

Essay Topic 2

Mustafa's widow Hosna and Wad Reyyes become a part of each other's lives. Describe their history together and how this influences other people. How do they become involved? Why? What does Wad want? What does Hosna want? What happens to the two people? What is their dramatic end a result from? How do the villagers react to the events? How does the narrator feel about the events? How does Mahjoub feel about the event? How does this event change the relationship between the narrator and his friend Mahjoub? Why does the narrator feel he indirectly killed Hosna?

Essay Topic 3

When Mustafa was a child, a man on horseback appeared. How does this event change Mustafa's life? How did he react to this man? What were the consequences? How did this man influence Mustafa? How was Mustafa different from the other children? Describe the meeting between the man on the horse and Mustafa and relate it to Mustafa's further childhood and adulthood.

(see the answer keys)

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