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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 Hideyo sleep on?

2. What happens to mother in Chapter 8?

3. What is on the bulletin board on Yoko's fifth day of school?

4. What color was Yoko's blanket originally?

5. Where is the red light that Hideyo sees coming from?

Short Essay Questions

1. Despite their destitute situation, how does Ko see things in a positive light?

2. What rituals and traditions do Yoko and Ko perform in honor of New Year's? What significance do they have?

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

4. Why do you think that mother insists that Yoko and Ko continue their education?

5. 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?

6. Why do you think Hideyo is so attached to Yoko's fur coat?

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

8. How would you characterize Yoko's classmates' experience during the final months of the war based on the way she is received?

9. 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?

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

Ko and Yoko seem to escape or change their fate on many different occasions. Cite three specific opportunities, experiences, or events which allow them to continue living and change their circumstances.

Essay Topic 2

Why do you think Yoko titled her essay "Understanding?" Do you think a different title would have been more fitting? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

How does Japan's historical interest in Korea, particularly in the two World Wars, affect the characters in So Far From the Bamboo Grove?

(see the answer keys)

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