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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. Why does Maxine feel her aunt's ghost is suffering?

2. Who is the father of Maxine's aunt's baby?

3. What do the traditional Chinese stories, like those told by Maxine's mother, teach Chinese girls they can be?

4. What does Maxine's aunt do after delivering her baby?

5. Which of these is a possibility Maxine considers to explain her aunt's pregnancy?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is one secret the narrator learns when she reads her sixth grade school file?

2. According to Moon Orchid, which of Brave Orchid's children are happy?

3. Explain how the girl in the white tigers fantasy story meets the old couple who train her.

4. How does the narrator feel when she is told not to speak of her aunt?

5. What do Brave Orchid's daughters learn from watching what happens between Moon Orchid and her husband?

6. What bothers the narrator the most about the mentally retarded man who comes and sits in the laundry?

7. How does the narrator feel when she understands that her family will not return to China? Why does she feel this way?

8. Why doesn't the narrator visit her parents often?

9. What was Crazy Mary's appearance, according to the narrator's description?

10. Why did the narrator's mother did not mind girls cheating off of her in school?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In "Shaman," the narrator's mother goes to medical school. Use these questions as a guide to describe her experience there. Your essay should include a thesis statement that explains how medical school affected the narrator's mother's life path. Use the guiding questions to help craft your thesis support.

1) Who are the "new women" the narrator's mother meets? How does she view them?

2) How does the narrator's mother change after going to medical school? What does she learn there?

3) How is the narrator's mother treated when she returns from medical school? Why is she treated in this way?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the narrator's relationship with the quiet girl at school, particularly their interactions. Why do you think the narrator picks on the quiet girl? What do the narrator's actions reveal about her upbringing and her opinions about herself?

Essay Topic 3

A large part of the novel describes the narrator's childhood.

Part 1) Explain at least two of the secrets the narrator has to keep during her childhood. How do you think these secrets affected the narrator's personal and social life?

Part 2) Why do you think the Chinese American children are warned about immigration growing up? Explain what fears immigrants had during the time period of the novel's setting, and how these fears relate to the events of the novel as a whole.

(see the answer keys)

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