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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. What type of flowers has the narrator in Chapter 8 put in oak barrels?

2. In Chapter 10, near where did the story that the narrator tells take place?

3. In Chapter 10 as the officer drove through the mountains, what dashed across the road?

4. In Chapter 12, how large is the lot on which the narrator’s house is built?

5. In Chapter 8, how old was the narrator when she met her Vietnamese love?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 12, how does the narrator describe the special shoe that he owns?

2. Where did Mr. Cohen live before he lived in the United States?

3. What is a marriage ceremony like in Vietnam according to the narrator in Chapter 8?

4. How did the narrator escape Vietnam?

5. What is the memory of fighting that the narrator shares in Chapter 9?

6. In Chapter 11, why does Mr. Cohen say that Christmas is not his holiday?

7. In Chapter 12, why didn’t the narrator’s family come with him to America?

8. How does the narrator in Chapter 8 feel about her baby being a girl and why?

9. In Chapter 10, what did the woman in the road tell the officer after he crashed and found himself lying on the ground?

10. In Chapter 8, why didn’t the narrator marry Bao?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Chapter 15, scents are very important to Dao. How do scents bring back memory? What do scents have to do with his religion? Why are scents used to describe his family? Do the types of scents mentioned depict the characters of family members? What is the last scent that Dao remembers?

Essay Topic 2

In Chapter 7, the narrator admits that he is a wimpy man. Why is the narrator a wimp? How does his lack of physical presence affect his marriage? What does he do that enhances his status with his wife? How does that affect his relationship with his wife?

Essay Topic 3

A different narrator tells each of the stories.

a. What is a common theme in these stories?

b. How does the author unify the different stories?

(see the answer keys)

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