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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. Where does the narrator say he prefers to stay rather than going to school in "It's That It Hurts"?

2. Whose eyes does the mother ask to be covered in "A Prayer"?

3. Why does the responder say no when asked if he plans to go to Utah in "Comadre, Do You All Plan to Go to Utah?"

4. What actually happens to the water every night in "What His Mother Never Knew..."?

5. How does the narrator describe the meat that Dona Bone served him for dinner in "Hand in His Pocket"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What becomes of the farmer after he shoots the boy in "The Children Couldn't Wait"?

2. Who is Dona Cuquita and how is she described in "It's That It Hurts"?

3. What happens when the protagonist hears someone calling his name in "The Lost Year"?

4. Why do the workers not receive what the minister promised them in "One Afternoon a Minister..."?

5. Why does the "wetback" start coming to see Dona Bone in "Hand in His Pocket"?

6. How does the narrator describe his humiliation upon arriving at the new school in "It's That It Hurts"?

7. To whom does the woman pray in "A Prayer"? Why?

8. What happens to the protagonist's younger brother in "And the Earth Did Not Devour Him"? How does he respond?

9. How does the narrator describe his treatment by Dona Bone and Don Laito when he first began staying with them in "Hand in His Pocket"?

10. What does the narrator's father aspire for the narrator to be when he grows up in "It's That It Hurts"? Why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the symbolism seen in "The Lost Year" and "What His Mother Never Knew..." How does the symbolism in these excerpts help to illustrate the characters in the novel? What imagery is used in these sections?

Essay Topic 2

What happens to Ramon in "The Night the Lights Went Out"? How does he come to this fate? Do you think that he is justified in his actions? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the author's inclusion of "vignettes" throughout And the Earth Did Not Devour Him. What is illustrated through these vignettes? How do these vignettes shape the mood and tone of the novel?

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