22 multiple-choice (MCQ / objective) questions from this chapter, in the common exam-style shapes. Every question comes with an explanation along with the answer, so you remember why the option is correct, not just which one it is.
1 Direct Questions
Direct Questions
- 1 mark“Bama” is the pen name of a writer from which community?
(A) A Tamil Dalit, Roman Catholic family(B) A Tamil Brahmin family(C) A Bengali zamindar family(D) A Punjabi Sikh family - 1 markWhat is Zitkala-Sa’s real name, as the book gives it?
(A) Judewin Bonnin(B) Gertrude Simmons Bonnin(C) Sarah Winnemucca(D) Winona Bonnin - 1 markIn which class was Bama studying when, she says, she had not yet heard people speak openly of untouchability?
(A) The first class(B) The third class(C) The fifth class(D) The tenth class - 1 markThe book’s own introduction describes both writers as belonging to what kind of community, set against a “mainstream culture”?
(A) A marginalised community(B) An urban, educated community(C) A ruling community(D) A wealthy community - 1 markWhat does Zitkala-Sa say she lost at the moment her braid was cut?
(A) Her shoes(B) Her blanket(C) Her spirit(D) Her friend Judewin - 1 markBoth “The Cutting of My Long Hair” and “We Too are Human Beings” belong to which genre?
(A) Fantasy fiction(B) Biography written by someone else(C) Autobiography(D) Historical drama - 1 markWhat narrative perspective do both accounts use?
(A) Third-person, told by an outside narrator(B) First-person and retrospective: each writer looks back and narrates her own remembered childhood(C) Second-person, addressed directly to the reader(D) Some chapters use first, some use third person
2 Assertion-Reason
Assertion-Reason
- 1 markAssertion (A): Zitkala-Sa submits quietly the moment she learns her hair is to be cut.
Reason (R): Judewin has already told her that they must submit because “they are strong”.
(A) A and R are both true, and R correctly explains A(B) A and R are both true, but R does not explain A(C) A is true, but R is false(D) A is false, but R is true - 1 markAssertion (A): The forced cutting of Zitkala-Sa’s hair devastates her sense of self.
Reason (R): Among her people, shingled hair was the mark of a coward, while short hair was worn by mourners.
(A) A is true, but R is false(B) A is false, but R is true(C) A and R are both true, and R correctly explains A(D) A and R are both true, but R does not explain A - 1 markAssertion (A): Bama is amused when she first sees the elder carrying the packet oddly.
Reason (R): At that moment, she does not yet understand the caste reason behind his behaviour.
(A) A and R are both true, but R does not explain A(B) A and R are both true, and R correctly explains A(C) A is true, but R is false(D) A is false, but R is true
3 Match the Following
Match the Following
- 1 markMatch List I with List II.
List I: (i) Zitkala-Sa (ii) Judewin (iii) Bama (iv) Annan
List II: (p) Advises his sister to study hard (q) Warns about the plan to cut their hair (r) Resists being restrained before her hair is cut (s) Witnesses caste discrimination as a schoolgirl
(A) i-q, ii-r, iii-p, iv-s(B) i-s, ii-p, iii-r, iv-q(C) i-p, ii-s, iii-q, iv-r(D) i-r, ii-q, iii-s, iv-p - 1 markMatch List I with List II.
List I: (i) “I will not submit! I will struggle first!” (ii) “We have to submit, because they are strong.” (iii) “But we too are human beings.” (iv) “Study with care, learn all you can.”
List II: (p) Annan (q) Bama (r) Judewin (s) Zitkala-Sa
(A) i-q, ii-p, iii-s, iv-r(B) i-r, ii-s, iii-p, iv-q(C) i-p, ii-q, iii-r, iv-s(D) i-s, ii-r, iii-q, iv-p
4 Statement-Based Questions
Statement-Based Questions
- 1 markStatement I: Zitkala-Sa hides under a bed to avoid having her hair cut.
Statement II: She is never discovered and escapes the school entirely.
(A) Statement I is false, Statement II is true(B) Both statements are true, and Statement II explains Statement I(C) Both statements are true, but Statement II does not explain Statement I(D) Statement I is true, Statement II is false - 1 markStatement I: The vadais had been wrapped first in a banana leaf and then in paper.
Statement II: This still does not make it acceptable, in the eyes of upper-caste people, for the elder to hand the packet over directly.
(A) Statement I is false, Statement II is true(B) Statement I is true, Statement II is false(C) Both statements are true, but Statement II does not explain Statement I(D) Both statements are true, and Statement II explains Statement I - 1 markStatement I: Both accounts in this chapter are autobiographies.
Statement II: Both are narrated in the first person by the author, about her own life.
(A) Both statements are true, and Statement II explains Statement I(B) Statement I is false, Statement II is true(C) Both statements are true, but Statement II does not explain Statement I(D) Statement I is true, Statement II is false
5 Arrange in the Correct Order
Arrange in the Correct Order
- 1 markArrange these events in the order they happen.
1. Judewin warns Zitkala-Sa about the hair-cutting plan
2. Zitkala-Sa hides under a bed
3. She is dragged out and tied to a chair
4. The breakfast bell rings on the first morning
(A) 1-2-4-3(B) 1-4-2-3(C) 4-2-1-3(D) 4-1-2-3 - 1 markArrange these events in the order they happen.
1. The elder carries the packet by its string to the landlord
2. Bama tells Annan the story as a joke
3. Bama feels angry and says “we too are human beings”
4. Bama watches the threshing floor
(A) 4-1-2-3(B) 1-4-2-3(C) 2-4-1-3(D) 4-2-1-3
6 Fill in the Blanks
Fill in the Blanks
- 1 markAccording to Annan, everybody believed that upper-caste people who touched people of the elder’s community would be made ______.
(A) unwell(B) unlucky(C) ashamed(D) polluted
7 Odd One Out
Odd One Out
- 1 markWhich of these words does the chapter NOT use?
(A) self-fulfilling prophecy(B) untouchability(C) polluted(D) shingled
8 Passage-Based Questions
Passage-Based Questions
Passage
I cried aloud, shaking my head all the while until I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids. Then I lost my spirit. Since the day I was taken from my mother I had suffered extreme indignities. People had stared at me. I had been tossed about in the air like a wooden puppet. And now my long hair was shingled like a coward’s!
- 1 markRead the extract and answer: what does Zitkala-Sa do immediately before her hair is cut, according to this extract?
(A) She stands silently with her head bowed(B) She quietly closes her eyes(C) She cries aloud and shakes her head(D) She begs the paleface woman for mercy
Passage
The elder went straight up to the landlord, bowed low and extended the packet towards him, cupping the hand that held the string with his other hand. The landlord opened the parcel and began to eat the vadais… Annan told me the man wasn’t being funny when he carried the package like that. He said everybody believed that they were upper caste and therefore must not touch us. If they did, they would be polluted. That’s why he had to carry the package by its string.
- 1 markRead the extract and answer: how does the elder hold the packet as he approaches the landlord?
(A) Openly in both hands(B) Balanced on a tray(C) By its string, cupping the string-holding hand with his other hand(D) Resting it flat on his open palm
9 True / False
True / False
- 1 markConsider the following statements.
(i) Judewin decides to resist the hair-cutting along with Zitkala-Sa.
(ii) Annan tells Bama that if they study and make progress, they can throw away these indignities.
(A) Only (ii) is true(B) Both are false(C) Only (i) is true(D) Both are true
Answer Key and Explanations
Direct Questions
- (A) The book describes Bama as “the pen-name of a Tamil Dalit woman from a Roman Catholic family.”
- (B) The book states she “began publishing articles” as Zitkala-Sa, and names her as “Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, born in 1876.”
- (B) “When I was studying in the third class, I hadn’t yet heard people speak openly of untouchability.”
- (A) The “Before you read” note calls both writers members of “marginalised communities who look back on their childhood.”
- (C) “I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids. Then I lost my spirit.”
- (C) Both are the authors’ own first-person, remembered accounts of real events from their own childhood.
- (B) Both Zitkala-Sa and Bama narrate their own past in the first person, as adults looking back, which is exactly what makes each piece an autobiography rather than a biography of someone else.
Assertion-Reason
- (D) A is false: she declares “No, I will not submit! I will struggle first!” and hides instead. R is true: Judewin does say this.
- (C) R is one of the causes the book gives: “And now my long hair was shingled like a coward’s!”, alongside “Since the day I was taken from my mother I had suffered extreme indignities.”
- (B) Both are true, and R explains A: she finds the walk funny because she does not yet know the caste reason; Annan later tells her “the man wasn’t being funny”.
Match the Following
- (D) Zitkala-Sa resists (r), Judewin warns her (q), Bama witnesses discrimination (s), Annan advises her (p).
- (D) Zitkala-Sa says (i), Judewin says (ii), Bama says (iii), Annan says (iv).
Statement-Based Questions
- (D) Statement I is true; Statement II is false, since she is discovered, dragged out, and her hair is cut by force.
- (C) Both statements are true, but Statement II does not explain Statement I: the wrapping is simply how the vadais were packed, while Statement II rests on the belief, which the book says everybody held, that touch would leave upper-caste people “polluted”. Bama asks, “How could they believe that it was disgusting … even though the vadai had been wrapped first in a banana leaf, and then parcelled in paper?”
- (C) Both statements are true, but Statement II does not explain Statement I: it only restates what an autobiography is (a first-person account of the writer’s own life); it gives no cause.
Arrange in the Correct Order
- (D) The breakfast bell (4) comes first, then Judewin’s warning (1), then the hiding (2), then being caught and tied down (3).
- (A) Bama first watches the threshing floor (4), then sees the elder with the packet (1), tells Annan as a joke (2), and only then feels angry (3), after Annan explains.
Fill in the Blanks
- (D) “He said everybody believed that they were upper caste and therefore must not touch us. If they did, they would be polluted.”
Odd One Out
- (A) “Untouchability”, “polluted” and “shingled” all appear in the book; “self-fulfilling prophecy” does not.
Passage-Based Questions
- (C) “I cried aloud, shaking my head all the while until I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck.”
- (C) “Extended the packet towards him, cupping the hand that held the string with his other hand.”
True / False
- (A) (i) is false: Judewin decides to submit, not resist. (ii) is true: “if we study and make progress, we can throw away these indignities.”
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