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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 many dumplings does Qian's mother remember that Qian ate when she had a competition with Lao Ye to see who could eat the most?

2. In Chapter 10, what was the name of the public library that Qian's teacher took her and her class to?

3. Where did Qian and her mother land in Chapter 2 for their first connection to America?

4. When Qian and her parents took the train to see her father's grandparents, how many times would the food cart roll past them on the journey?

5. What did Lao Lao mail the Wangs in Chapter 9?

Short Essay Questions

1. What job did Qian's father get in Chapter 8?

2. What would Qian's family eat on Sundays?

3. What does Qian say about arriving in the United States and her life there in "How It Began"?

4. Where did Qian and her parents live in Chapter 4?

5. Who was assigned to help Qian in school in Chapter 6, and what did the girl tell her at lunchtime?

6. In Chapter 5, what jobs did Qian and her mother get?

7. Why did Qian love libraries and books?

8. In Chapter 6, when and why did Qian stop believing her father?

9. What happened to Wang Lao Shi's eldest brother?

10. How did Qian discover Chatham Square?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Lao Ye gave Qian a keychain when she was leaving China. What was the keychain like? What did the Chinese symbols on it mean? What did the keychain teach Qian? What did it symbolize for her?

Essay Topic 2

The setting in a book is the place or places where the action takes place. Where does the story take place? Is the setting simply a backdrop to the story and people or does it take on the role of a character or person?

Essay Topic 3

Qian and her mother worked hard to have better lives. How did they work hard to make better lives? What barriers did they face in their efforts? How did tenacity help them not give up and achieve better lives?

(see the answer keys)

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