View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where did Bakha get his British jacket and overcoat?
(a) He found them in a rubbish bin.
(b) He bought them with his tip money.
(c) They were a gift from his uncle.
(d) They were prizes he won for playing hockey.

2. How many times does Bakha try to mount the temple steps before he has the courage to get all the way to the top step?
(a) 3.
(b) 4.
(c) 2.
(d) 5.

3. What does the term "Jemandar" mean (3)?
(a) A state of ritual impurity.
(b) To argue a point just for the fun of argument.
(c) Foreman, leader of a crew of workers.
(d) It is a term of respect for someone of a higher caste.

4. What did Lakha borrow money from Ganesh Nath, the bania, to pay for?
(a) A cow.
(b) His daughter's dowry.
(c) Sweeping equipment.
(d) His wife's funeral.

5. When the priest claims to have been "defiled by contact," what does Bakha assume (51)?
(a) The priest is lying.
(b) His sister must have touched the priest.
(c) He must have touched the priest on his way past him.
(d) There must be a third, as yet unseen, outcaste nearby.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the priest's real motivation in serving Sohini first?

2. What does Bakha tell Sohini he is going to do when he sends her home with his cleaning equipment?

3. What does Bakha buy from the betel-leaf shop?

4. What does the priest inside the temple do to indicate the beginning of services?

5. On page 28, what does the narrator say prevails in the lives of the outcastes?

Short Essay Questions

1. What mixture of feelings does Bakha have about Sohini as they make their way home from the temple?

2. Describe Bakha's father.

3. How do the incidents that take place with Bakha and Sohini at the temple reinforce the text's claims about power and status?

4. Describe Bakha's morning before he leaves his family's house.

5. Describe Bakha's initial reaction to the man who accuses him of bumping him on the street.

6. What seeming contradictions does Bakha notice in the treatment of cows?

7. Which habits of Indian people does Bakha find crude and unsophisticated?

8. Why is the man that Bakha bumps into in the street so angry?

9. What rhetorical purpose is served by the long passage in which Pundit Kali Nath thinks about all of the foods he has recently eaten?

10. On his way into town, how does Bakha light his cigarette, and what does this incident demonstrate about how his caste status impacts his beliefs about himself?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,186 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample