My Aunts Don't Want to Move – Moniza Alvi

• Awhere uncle, father, brother preside
• Bthey face each other on the mantelshelf
• Cwomen draw when unknown men appear
• Dcontinuous stream of delicacies

• AIdentity and cultural heritage
• BHome and belonging
• CTradition versus change
• DThe beauty of the natural world
• EThe excitement of travel and exploration

True or false?

• AThey create a cyclical structure that mirrors the repetitive routines of domestic life
• BThey create a fast-paced rhythm that suggests the aunts are always in a hurry
• CThey introduce a regular rhyme scheme that unifies the poem
• DThey show the speaker's growing anger at the aunts' way of life

• "They hug their house around them"
• "half-underground in a deafening city"
• "where uncle, father, brother preside"
• "dividing curtain"
• "It turns itself inside out"
• "just visible on the brink of the world"

• AThe final image is 'just visible on the brink of the world'.
• BThe poem ends with the aunts deciding to leave their home.
• CThe ending is deliberately open to interpretation.
• DThe house has fully entered the modern world.
• EThe family remains connected to a wider society but preserves its own identity.

• Ahalf-underground in a deafening city
• Bhigh above the deafening city
• Con the brink of the deafening city
• Dat the centre of the deafening city

• AThe separation of the domestic sphere from the outside world
• BThe aunts' desire to move to a new house
• CThe wealth of the family
• DThe speaker's distance from her relatives

• AThey create a cyclical structure mirroring domestic routines.
• BThey emphasise the growing inseparability of the aunts and their home.
• CThey suggest the family is eager to leave the house.
• DThey reinforce the poem's theme of continuity and tradition.
• EThey introduce a regular rhyme scheme.

• AIt suggests the household exists on the threshold between tradition and the wider world.
• BIt shows the house has been destroyed.
• CIt implies the aunts have moved abroad.
• DIt indicates the speaker is leaving the family.

True or false?

• AA refusal to relocate but also a resistance to cultural change and an attachment to an established way of life
• BA physical inability to leave because the house is half-underground
• CA desire to move abroad to be closer to the Alpine mountains
• DA rejection of the family's food and jewellery traditions

• AAn intimate, personal perspective showing a close emotional connection with the women described
• BThat the speaker is one of the aunts herself
• CThat the aunts are anonymous figures in a distant city
• DThat the speaker disapproves of the aunts' way of life

• AIt allows her to value the home's warmth while also noticing its boundaries and limitations
• BIt proves that she has never met her aunts in person
• CIt shows that she prefers the city to the household
• DIt means she cannot understand the family's traditions at all

• AObservant, respectful and gently contemplative rather than judgemental
• BAngry and mocking
• CColdly scientific and detached
• DSentimental and uncritical

• AAn appreciation of the comfort and security that tradition offers
• BAn awareness of the limitations tradition can sometimes impose
• CA belief that the aunts should abandon all their customs
• DAn interest in how home, culture, family and identity are connected
• EA claim that migration erases family memory completely

True or false?

• AThe house both embraces and restricts them, so security may also mean confinement
• BThe house is physically shrinking because it is half-underground
• CThe aunts are trying to sell the house
• DThe house has no connection to the family's identity

• AModesty combined with rich inherited craft, so the room expresses cultural continuity
• BThat the family is wealthy and ostentatious
• CThat the family has abandoned South Asian traditions
• DThat the room is unused and empty

• AAs figures of authority, presented matter-of-factly rather than critically
• BAs servants of the aunts
• CAs absent from the household entirely
• DAs visitors who rarely enter the house

• AProtection of privacy in line with cultural customs surrounding modesty
• BA boundary shaping women's lives and separating the domestic sphere from the outside world
• CA symbol of the aunts' desire to travel abroad
• DA habitual action governed by tradition and expectation
• EA sign that the household has no rules at all

• AIt reminds readers of a wider world that remains distant, reinforcing the tension between openness and enclosure
• BIt shows that the family plans to emigrate to Europe
• CIt proves the aunts have visited the mountains
• DIt is a religious object central to the household's customs

• ATradition is precious but may also carry emotional weight or personal sacrifice
• BThe bangles are simply broken and useless
• CThe aunts have given up wearing jewellery
• DThe drawer is empty because the family sold its treasures

True or false?

• They revolve their house before them.
• They hug their house around them
• Their house contracts and holds them.

• AIt suggests purposeful, habitual movement rather than freedom or exploration, implying lives largely confined within the home.
• BIt shows the aunts are physically frail and unable to walk slowly.
• CIt proves the aunts are eager to leave the house and explore the city.
• DIt creates a comic tone by making the aunts seem clumsy and disorganised.

• AIt creates a quiet, mysterious atmosphere, suggesting private spaces hidden from outsiders.
• BIt makes the house sound noisy and chaotic, like the 'deafening city' outside.
• CIt suggests the rooms are bright and welcoming to visitors.
• DIt emphasises the speed at which the aunts move through the house.

• AIt creates auditory imagery of a chaotic, intrusive outside world, contrasting with the sheltered house.
• BIt shows the city is completely silent and peaceful.
• CIt proves the city is where the aunts most want to be.
• DIt suggests the city is far away and irrelevant to the poem.

• AIt reverses the expected image of people living inside a house, suggesting the women wrap themselves in it and are inseparable from their domestic world.
• BIt suggests the aunts are physically embracing the walls of the building.
• CIt shows the aunts want to leave the house and travel.
• DIt implies the house is cold and unwelcoming.

• AIt suggests the house actively embraces and protects its inhabitants.
• BIt implies comfort and closeness.
• CIt hints at restriction, shrinking and confinement.
• DIt proves the house is literally shrinking in size.
• EIt shows the aunts are trying to sell the house.

The house is described as half-underground in a ____ city, with a ____ courtyard and doors to secret, ____ rooms.

The house reveals 'The ancient ____, knee-high ____' and 'the bruising ____ waiting in the drawer'.

The poem explores the tension between the security of ____ and the possibility of change, and presents the home as both a sanctuary and a ____.

Alvi's bicultural perspective allows her to appreciate both the ____ that tradition offers and the ____ it can sometimes impose.

The house is described as 'half-underground in a ____ city'. The aunts hurry across the ____ courtyard. The final image places the household 'just visible on the ____ of the world'.

The richly patterned fabric in the sitting-room is called ____, while the jewellery that suggests femininity and tradition is the ____ waiting in the drawer.

The poem is written in ____ verse and is organised into ____ six-line stanzas, with each stanza opening with a ____ construction that creates a cyclical structure.