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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 is the name of Carlos's youngest child?

2. What is the name of the jackpot in the Spanish lottery?

3. In Chapter 22, what lands on Fidel's shoulder?

4. As Carlos mentions in Chapter 9, who was the voice of Speedy Gonzalez?

5. How old is Carlos in the anecdote with which chapter 1 opens?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the instructions that come with receiving a key to the family pantheon?

2. According to Chapter 7, what happened to Cuba after Fidel came to power?

3. How does Carlos feel about the poster he made in fourth grade?

4. How did Carlos's grandfather Amado die, and how old was he?

5. What is the significance of the mamey pit to Carlos?

6. In Chapter 2, who is the man who hides behind Marie Antoinette, and what happens to him?

7. Where does Carlos see the Cuba-shaped clouds, and how does he feel about them?

8. With regard to Fernando's prison term, what does "rehabilitation" mean?

9. How do Cubans relate to a statue of Saint Lazarus, and what connection does Carlos have with one?

10. In Chapter 20, how does Louis XVI deal with the man at the door?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the idea of death in this book. What are the various moments that seem like a type of death? What are the moments that Carlos himself identifies as a death? Do you think death is a good symbol for those events, or do you think something else could more appropriately have symbolized them? Explain.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the irony inherent within the character El Loco as well as his role throughout the book. What does he symbolize? Why?

Essay Topic 3

Describe Carlos's assessment of the school of parrot fish as a miracle, in comparison with other miracles that he has witnessed in his life.

(see the answer keys)

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