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. Why does Ram Charan remove his solar hat as the three friends walk back from the spring?
(a) His friends have been making fun of his strange outfit.
(b) The sun has gone behind a cloud.
(c) He does not want Gulabo to catch him wearing it.
(d) He is uncomfortable wearing it in the glum silence.

2. What word does Lakha use to address the doctor in his story?
(a) Pandit.
(b) Babu.
(c) Sahib.
(d) Hakim.

3. What does Bakha criticize his brother for when they are eating?
(a) Eating with dirty hands.
(b) Being greedy with the food.
(c) Chewing with his mouth open.
(d) Dropping food on the floor.

4. What is the profession of the man that Ram Charan's sister is marrying?
(a) Leather worker.
(b) Washerman.
(c) Water carrier.
(d) Soldier.

5. What does Bakha stop to do on his way home from the hockey game?
(a) See more of Ram Charan's sister's wedding.
(b) Hide his stick.
(c) Retrieve the sugar plums he hid for later.
(d) Beg for water at the well.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Bakha anticipate his father's reaction will be if he tells him about his day's problems?

2. What is Bakha trying to figure out when he is on his way to the kitchen and asks himself "Is it wet or dry?" (92)?

3. What does his trip to the kitchen cause Bakha to remember?

4. What do both Bakha's earlier dreams and his experience at the wedding demonstrate about him?

5. Why does Rakha feel safe from Bakha's criticism?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Bakha's memory of seeing Ram Charan's sister on her way home from the brook one morning before dawn.

2. What are the stories about how the hat came to hang on the cantonment wall?

3. What puzzles Bakha about his having had the courage to ask a sentry for the solar topee when he was a child, and why does it puzzle him?

4. How does the younger of the babu's sons end up getting injured?

5. How does Bakha react to Chota's suggestion that the friends "catch hold" of the priest one day (84)?

6. When Bakha is on his way to see Charat Singh about the hockey stick, what strange feeling does he have about the errand?

7. Describe some of the common elements in Bakha's dreams when he falls asleep in the alley.

8. What does Bakha tell himself about his decision to go to Ram Charan's sister's wedding, and what are his true motives?

9. Although Bakha is honored by Charat Singh's actions, in what sense are they also condescending and dismissive of Bakha's humanity?

10. Why do all of the sepoys and local children long to own the solar topee?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,238 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample