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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. In Chapter 14 for the game show, what costumes do the narrator and her sister wear?

2. In Chapter 13 when the narrator visits Thuy in the hospital, what color are Thuy’s nails painted?

3. How long are Gabrielle and Vinh scheduled to stay in Puerto Vallarta?

4. In Chapter 13, how old would the narrator and Thuy have been?

5. What color ao dai did the woman wear that the officer saw in the middle of the road in Chapter 10?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How did Gabrielle guess wrongly about which women were on which types of game shows?

3. To whom is the narrator speaking in Chapter 8 and why?

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

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

6. What does the narrator discover in Chapter 13 when she prepared Thuy’s body?

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

8. What did the major decide had happened to him when he got back into his car in Chapter 10?

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

10. In Chapter 10, what did Miss Linh save the narrator from?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The narrator in Chapter 7 is accustomed to getting retribution when someone tries to take his wife. Why doesn’t the narrator ever use physical force? How is he able to deal with the problem when he lives in Vietnam? How does he decide to deal with the problem in America? Does the narrator’s lack of physical prowess interfere with his revenge in any way? How does the narrator use his mind to solve the problem of his wife rather than brawn?

Essay Topic 2

In Chapter 3, Khanh says that he does not believe in omens and symbols. Why does it seem that Khanh might believe in omens and symbols? What does he observe on his trip to the Houston airport? What connection does he see between signs along the way and what he is going or about to do? On the way back home, why is the symbolism more obvious to Khanh? Even though Khanh states that he isn’t a man who believes in symbols and omens, is that a true statement? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

In Chapter 10, the narrator makes the comment that Miss Linh has eaten him up. What does the narrator mean by that statement? How many times did Miss Linh help him escape trouble? Was he escaping trouble the last time that he saw her? Why is he still haunted by her?

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