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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. How old is the narrator in Chapter 10?

2. What would the sisters have won if they had been able to make the deal before theirs?

3. In Chapter 10, what was the rank of the officer who visited his mistress?

4. In Chapter 9, what type of weapon does the narrator say he used in Vietnam?

5. In Chapter 13, how did Thuy die?

Short Essay Questions

1. When and where did Thuy and the narrator meet Ly?

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

3. As Gabrielle watches a man strapped into a parachute, what does Vinh ask her to remind him?

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

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

6. In Chapter 10, what did the major discover when he awoke for a second time?

7. Where is Thuy to be buried?

8. Why does the narrator in Chapter 9 find it strange that he escaped Vietnam and so many others didn’t?

9. How did the narrator escape Vietnam?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Chapter 4, Miss Noi shares her love for fairy tales. Why does Miss Noi like fairy tales? Why does she especially like the word “upon” that begins most fairy tales? Is her story told like a fairy tale? Does she believe that her life has been a fairy tale?

Essay Topic 2

The characters in the novel were immigrants from Vietnam.

a. What types of struggles did these immigrants have as they adjusted to living in the United States?

b. Did money or a lack of money affect how easily or difficult it was to assimilate into American society?

c. What were some of the ways that the characters adjusted to their new lives?

d. Why was it easier for some to adjust than others?

Essay Topic 3

In Chapter 8, the myth of an emperor who goes to the moon is told. What did the emperor find on the moon? Why did he leave? Why did he begin holding a festival on the fifteenth day of the eight month? In what way did the narrator say that she traveled to the moon? What did she find there? What does she think of the world where she lives now? Is she content in the world where she lives?

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