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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 much money was one of the characters loaned, allowing him to buy food for two months in "When We Arrive"?

2. How much does the portait salesman say it will cost to enlarge a portrait, inlay, and frame it in "The Portrait"?

3. The wife in "The Portrait" says they lost her Chuy right before he left for where?

4. The truck driver in "When We Arrive" says that as soon as he drops these people off, he's going to see how things go hauling what?

5. What covers the protagonist's walls in his bedroom in "First Communion"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who do the characters surmise probably turned Figueroa in, in "They Let Figueroa Out..."?

2. Who buys a portrait in "The Portrait"? Who is the portrait of?

3. Why has the narrator been unable to sleep the night before in "First Communion"?

4. Why does Bartolo pass through town every December?

5. Why is Dona Maria arrested in "The Night Before Christmas"? How does she get out of jail?

6. Where do the children stay when the Garcias go to work in "The Little Burnt Victims"? Why?

7. How does Ramon feel about his girlfriend in "The Night the Lights Went Out"?

8. How is the information relayed to the reader largely in "The Night the Lights Went Out"? Why do you think the author chooses this narrative style?

9. What preparations are described in "It Was a Beautiful Wedding Day..."?

10. How does the fire start in "The Little Burnt Victims"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why does the narrator of "It's That It Hurts" say he got into a fight at school? Do you think that his fighting is justified? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Discuss the protagonist as he is observed in "Under the House." How old do you perceive the character as being at this point in the novel? What does the mother remark about him? What does he remark about himself?

(see the answer keys)

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