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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 does Ko learn when reading the newspaper?

2. How does Yoko think of Ko?

3. Why can't Yoko go to the hotel alone?

4. What town is the only one to escape bombing?

5. What was father's name seal made of?

Short Essay Questions

1. Do you think the geese Hideyo sees flying are a symbol of anything? If so, what?

2. Why do you think Yoko titled her essay, "Understanding?"

3. Why does Hideyo not want to part with the clothes he gtes from the Lees?

4. What evidence is there that deep down, Ko is still a young girl?

5. Why do you think Yoko would choose to write about her experiences at school rather than the ordeal she and her family endured when leaving Korea?

6. Why do you think Yoko ponders that "it was strange that we did not think more of father, whom we loved dearly" instead of Hideyo?

7. In order to survive for as long as Hideyo has in the conditions he has endured, what character traits do you think he possesses?

8. What role do Ko and Yoko play in Mother's death ritual?

9. Upon mother's and Yoko's reunion at the train station, Yoko thinks to herself that she suddenly "felt grown up." What brings about this change in Yoko's sense of self?

10. What motivates Hideyo to press on as he struggles through the storm?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Aside from physically being so far from the bamboo grove, how are Yoko and her family symbolically so far from it? In other words, what does the bamboo grove symbolize for them?

Essay Topic 2

What role does family play in the book? How is the importance of family symbolized? At what cost does the family try to stay together? Are there characters in the book who are not blood relatives but act as such? Give specific examples.

Essay Topic 3

Although the Kawashima family loses virtually all of their possessions including their home, what do they never lose despite their circumstances? Cite three examples and explain.

(see the answer keys)

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