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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 find to eat as he approaches the gorge through the mountains?

2. What is the most gorgeous thing Yoko ever owned?

3. How does eating so many mushrooms effect Hideyo?

4. Why was Hideyo happy at first when he sees people coming towards him on the tracks?

5. What was the main difference between the Japanese trains and the Korean trains?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Ko continue to demonstrate her survival instincts in Chapter 9?

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

3. How do Yoko and Ko carry out the Japanese death ritual and show respect for mother?

4. Describe the dichotomy of the Tokyo train station.

5. Describe the emotions Ko and Yoko experience in the first few pages of Chapter 9.

6. As Chapter 8 begins, Yoko feels that she has nothing except for one thing. What does she have?

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

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

9. 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?

10. How does Ko demonstrate the importance of respect in Japanese culture?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

There are many times throughout the book when the characters have to lie or be dishonest with people. Under what circumstances did Yoko, Ko, Hideyo, and other characters have to lie throughout their ordeal? What were the consequences, if any, for their dishonesty? Might these lies ever come back to haunt the characters in their future? If so, how?

Essay Topic 2

Upon learning that her story would be published, Yoko said, "I competed against life and death when young. And I won." Choose three critical turning points in the story in which Yoko had to compete "against life and death" and describe how she emerged victorious.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the role of honor in the book.

(see the answer keys)

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