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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. What is the mirasse?
(a) A family meeting required by the Koran where the deceased's secrets are exposed.
(b) A pilgrimage to Mecca.
(c) A vision the widow finds on a quest in the desert.
(d) A payment of 10 dollars from the government for the widow.

2. How many sons does Aunty Nabou have?
(a) Just one, Mawdo.
(b) Five.
(c) Six.
(d) None.

3. What is one secret revealed about the deceased?
(a) He loved to travel to America.
(b) He never believed in the Koran.
(c) He had two other wives secretly.
(d) He had serious financial problems.

4. What does Modou complain about in his letters?
(a) The difficulty of the coursework.
(b) The cold weather in France.
(c) The quality of the petit fours.
(d) Racial discrimination.

5. Who is Aissatou?
(a) The narrator's first college professor.
(b) The narrator's sister-in-law.
(c) The narrator's best friend.
(d) The narrator's sister.

Short Answer Questions

1. How do the narrator and her friends feel about being teachers?

2. Why is the narrator upset about the donations from the people?

3. How is Aunty Nabou received when she arrives at her destination?

4. Who discusses the mysteries of birth and death with the narrator?

5. What does Mawdo, Aissatou's husband, admire about his father-in-law?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the narrator's living situation.

2. What is the first of Modou's secrets that is revealed?

3. What is a mirasse?

4. How does the narrator react to the news and what does she think?

5. What does the widow have to do after the funeral of her husband? How does she feel about this?

6. What does the narrator write in her diary as a young woman and remembers in this chapter?

7. Why does the narrator rush to the hospital and what does she find?

8. Compare and contrast the second marriages of Mawdo and Modou.

9. How does Mawdo's mother take revenge agains Aissatou?

10. What does Modou do upon returning from France?

(see the answer keys)

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