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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 happens the first time Mma Ramotswe tries?

2. What position is she hired for?

3. Who is the friend that Mma Ramotswe visits?

4. When does Mma Ramotswe remember having been there before?

5. What does Precious learn was responsible for the disappearance?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens to Precious when she tells Note she is pregnant?

2. How does Mma Ramotswe meet her husband?

3. What concerns do J.L.B. Matekoni and Mma Ramotswe share about the missing boy, believed to have been kidnapped?

4. Who does Mma Ramotswe receive a letter from and what are the contents of the letter?

5. What was the memory of the Kalahari that came to Mma Ramotswe as she drove through the region?

6. What alternate avenue of education does Precious get as a child and what is she taught there?

7. What issue, common in the mines of South Africa, does Obed witness that causes him to quit his job?

8. Who helped Precious on her road to education, and later provides a place for her to stay when she leaves home after her schooling is complete?

9. What happens when Mma Ramotswe suggests that Mr. Patel be less controlling?

10. What is the cause of Obed Ramotswe's death?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Precious meet her first husband? What attracts her to him? What kind of character does she discover in him? How does he reveal who he really is? Why does Precious marry him anyway? How does her father feel about the marriage? What does Mma Ramotswe's father do and why? How does this man affect Mma Ramotswe's future with men and why?

Essay Topic 2

Who does Mma Ramotswe go to see regarding the item Matekoni found? What does he reveal to her? What question does she ask where the answer surprises her? Why will the police have only limited interest in a crime of this nature? What plan does Mma Ramotswe devise to uncover the truth?

Essay Topic 3

What exactly is a red herring where writing is concerned? What is the red herring in this novel? When is it introduced? What is the purpose of a red herring in a story? What other reasons might an author have for including one? How might that mystery have been resolved had it not been a red herring?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,049 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample