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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. The phrase “sobh bekheir” carries which of the following meanings, per the novel?

2. The novel suggests that the phrase “afiat basheh” is equivalent to which of the following?

3. Per Darius, in which season of Star Trek: The Next Generation is “Captain’s Holiday?”

4. The comment that “The house felt cozy, like a Hobbit-hole” (206) offers an example of which of the following?

5. Which of the following ends up as one of Sohrab and Darius’s teammates?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Darius note that he likes best of all in Sohrab?

2. What reason does Stephen give for having stopped telling Darius stories?

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

4. Why, as Darius asserts to Sohrab at the Bahrami Nowruz celebration, is Stephen unhappy with him?

5. 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?

6. In the baad gir in Yazd, Darius is taken by what he sees. What is it that he sees?

7. Why does Darius end up feeling sorry for Ali-Reza?

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

9. What does Darius wonder about Ardeshir as he helps him set up card tables for serving chelo kabob?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

As Darius prepares to leave Iran, he notes that he intends to call Fariba weekly but knows he will fail, noting that “Because each time I talked to her, I’d have to say good-bye.

“Now that we were part of each other’s lives—our real lives, not our photonic ones—I didn’t know if I could survive that” (299).

Given that, is Darius better off for having had the experience of meeting his Persian family? How does the novel support or deny the idea?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Consider the following exchange between Stephen and Darius:

“It’s my hair, Dad,” I said. “Why is it such a big deal to you, anyway?”

“Because it’s ridiculous. Did you ever thing that you wouldn’t get picked on so much if you weren’t so…”

Dad worked his jaw back and forth.

“So what, Dad”

But he didn’t answer.

What could he possibly say? (42-43)

What was Stephen about to say, but refrained from saying? What in the novel and in experience affirms that answer? How does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

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