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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. What purpose does the mother character serve by entering the story at this point?
(a) She provides an adult female presence to balance the male presence of the stranger.
(b) She moves the plot along and explains how the children could make such a mistake.
(c) She introduces a conflict that the children have to solve.
(d) She becomes the focus of the children so that they stop focusing on the stranger.

2. What makes the author afraid to name the village in China where her family lives?
(a) stories of Communist arresting family member of immigrants
(b) Tourists of the United States are listed as missing in newspapers
(c) Kingston's mother insists she did not reveal their secret.
(d) Kingston's uncle threatens to kill her nephew if she does.

3. Which of the following from "The Ghostmate" shows that the young man is feeling guilty about not returning to his family?
(a) The young husband should have hinted for some leftovers to bring home.
(b) Instead he feeds like a zoo animal.
(c) He asks, "Do you live alone?"
(d) His wife would enjoy hearing about his lucky night.

4. Which of the following is an example of a simile used in "The Ghostmate"?
(a) He gorges; he indulges his appetite.
(b) The bowls of soup are bottomless.
(c) Steam rises as if a mirage of food floated on the table.
(d) The orange of the firelight suffuses the prorcelain.

5. What do the women do to help stir the cool female winds inside Tang's body?
(a) giveTang tea with white chrysanthemums
(b) make Tang sit in the rain and wind
(c) unwrap the bindings from Tang's feet
(d) make Tang wash the bandages used to bind his feet

Short Answer Questions

1. What signed document states that Chinese and Americans could freely travel, trade, and live in either country?

2. What is the meaning of the word hastening in the opening lines of "On Fathers"?

3. What is Tang Ao doing when he meets the Queen?

4. Which railroad company building the Transcontinental Railroad does Ah Goong work for?

5. What does Ah Po show BaBa's brothers to explain that he is different from them?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe how the author uses personification in "The Great Grandfather from the Sandalwood Mountains." Give examples from the text.

2. Describe the elements of fantasy Kingston uses to characterize Maui the Trickster in "On Mortality Again."

3. Describe how Kingston feels about her father from China. Use details from the text to support your conclusions.

4. Why would Tang beg to have the bandages replaced tightly after having the them removed from his feet?

5. Tell what the Four Valuable Things are and explain their importance to the Chinese culture.

6. Why does Kingston say that MaMa's arrival ends Ed's independent life?

7. Describe the basis of the queue tax.

8. Explain how prior knowledge or a similar experience can help a reader understand the events that occur in "On Fathers."

9. At the end of the "The Laws," Kingston predicts that the 1980 census may show that a million or more ethnic Chinese will be living in the United States. Why does she have to predict the census numbers?

10. Explain how the author uses foreshadowing in the first two lines of "On Mortality."

(see the answer keys)

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