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. Which of the following bands does Fariba call her favorite?

2. Who is Jamsheed’s partner at the Nowruz Rook game?

3. The comment that “It’s like Springfield back in the United States: There is one in every province” (240) offers an example of which of the following?

4. In the comment, “It’s like he’s always making things hard on himself” (195), the antecedent for the pronoun “he” is which of the following?

5. With whom does Darius note the Kellners had sent Farbia and Ardeshir a rice platter?

Short Essay Questions

1. What reasons does Shirin give for not having taught Darius Farsi?

2. What litter does Darius note as he flees from the Rezaei home?

3. What reasons does Darius note for identifying Sohrab as a good listener at the Bahrami Nowruz celebration?

4. What occasions does Darius note prompt serving chelo kabob at his home?

5. What reasons does Darius give for being jealous of Sohrab at the Bahrami Nowruz party?

6. Why, as Darius asserts to Sohrab at the Bahrami Nowruz celebration, does he think Stephen does not love him?

7. In the group soccer game Darius and Sohrab play against Ali-Reza and Hossein, there is a metaphor in the opposing team’s goal being “completely undefended” against Sohrab’s play (247)? What is the vehicle to the undefended goal’s tenor, and how is it connected?

8. What are the three things Darius notes liking in Sohrab while walking with him and his family?

9. Why, per Darius, is kabob koobideh “the most suspicious-looking” of Persian foods (259-60)?

10. What does Darius note wanting to learn from Simin, but which he is unable to ask after?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider Darius’s thought that “For Fariba Bahrami, love was an opportunity, not a burden” (75). How can love serve as either opportunity or burden? What in the novel and in experience supports the interpretation? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Near the end of “The Best of Both Worlds,” the narrator notes that he nearly refused to play soccer,

“But that’s what Darius would have done.

“Darioush would have tried out.

“I thought about telling Sohrab that I had made the team. And sending him photos of me in my kit. And him squinting and congratulating me.

“I thought about having fun on the field, like I did with him and Asghar and even Ali-Reza and Hossein.

“‘Maybe I will,’ I said. ‘Maybe I will’” (306-07).

Which persona does the narrator ultimately adopt, Darius or Darioush? What in the novel suggests as much? How does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 827 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample