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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who says they see a coast guard boat coming?
(a) The old man.
(b) Celianne.
(c) The captain.
(d) The male narrator.

2. What do the passengers use the tar for?
(a) As sunscreen.
(b) As fuel for the motor.
(c) To patch up holes in the boat.
(d) To help Celianne deliver the baby.

3. Why do the passengers choose the name Swiss?
(a) Because they were trying to survive on rations of cheese.
(b) For the knife they used to cut the umbilical cord.
(c) Because Celianne dreamed of going to Switzerland.
(d) Because of the ethnicity of Celianne.

4. What does the male narrator dream?
(a) That heaven was at the bottom of the sea.
(b) That he died and went to heaven.
(c) All of these.
(d) That mermaids sang in Latin.

5. What does the male narrator pray for?
(a) That they will not hit a storm.
(b) That the sea will open up and swallow their boat.
(c) That the sea will part like in the Bible.
(d) That his love will marry a soldier for protection.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is the male narrator referring to in these sentences: "They say the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. I have never been given very much. What was there to take away?"

2. Where are the people on the boat sailing towards?

3. Who is the male narrator referring to when he says, "They're almost not human?"

4. Who says, "Maybe we will go to Guinin, to live with the spirits, to be with everyone who has come and has died before us?"

5. What does the male narrator say has finally made him an African?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the male narrator ask of his girlfriend? What does this tell us about him?

2. Why does Celianne jump overboard?

3. Describe the background between Manman and the narrator's father. How does this mirror his expectations for his daughter?

4. What does the female narrator do in a "last resort" way to preserve hope after the black butterflies come? Does it work?

5. At what point does the female narrator's opinion of her father change entirely? Who helps her come to understand his actions?

6. What does the female narrator ask of her boyfriend? How does this differ from his request to her?

7. Describe Ville Rose. Why is it special for the female narrator?

8. What does the young man on the boat have to prove that he is a political refugee? Why is it necessary to have these things?

9. Describe the Banyan tree. Why is it important?

10. What happened to the young man on the boat the first time he tried to sail to Miami?

(see the answer keys)

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