View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does Darius report wanting to work?

2. Which of the following is among the sites recommended by the second Iranian customs officer Darius encounters?

3. The word “amou” means which of the following, per the novel?

4. Which of the following is NOT a component of a lamassu?

5. The comment that “for a beautiful, poetic language, it sounded as harsh as Klingon when they fought” (79) offers an example of which of the following?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Darius identify as the two most humiliating moments in his life?

2. Why, per Darius, does he not shower after gym class at his school?

3. What activity does Darius report undertaking with Laleh that she pretends not to like?

4. What is Ardeshir doing when Darius first sees him in Iran?

5. What reasons does Darius give for disliking pu-erh tea?

6. What reasons does Darius give for avoiding detailed discussion of his school as he rides from Tehran to Yazd with Fairba?

7. What reasons does Darius give for not liking figs?

8. What does Darius notice when first reaching Ashkan’s store?

9. What is Surrender Cobra?

10. What reasons does Darius give for mistrusting his mother’s assertion that his eyes are beautiful?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Darius muses that “she [Fariba] and Babou were seated in the very front, the binary suns of the Bahrami family solar system” (174). Explicate the metaphor (e.g, what are its tenor and vehicle, what does it imply about those encompassed by it, where does it fail?).

Essay Topic 2

Consider the following:

“‘Wow,’ I breathed.

“It felt like the kind of place where you were supposed to whisper.

“‘You say that a lot.’

“‘Sorry.’

“‘Don’t be. I like it’” (246).

To what “it” does the last line refer? Why might Sohrab like it? What in the novel indicates that reason, and how does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the following exchange between Stephen and Darius:

But then Dad looked at me and said, “Love you, Darius.”

And I said, “Love you, Dad.”

And that meant we weren’t going to talk about it anymore (62).

Why would a mutual affirmation of love foreclose discussion of a topic? What in the text and in experience suggests as much? How does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 747 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample