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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. After curfew, the families of those who have had loved ones arrested do what as a form of resistance?

2. In what poem does the country wake up the next day and, in the name of Petya, refuse to hear the soldiers in the streets?

3. What happens to those who are caught unable to hear the soldiers?

4. Alfonso says that a bathtub, infant, and marriage bed are what?

5. For whom is Alfonso looking for initially in “4 a.m. Bombardment”?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the topic of both “Of Weddings before the War” and “Still Newlyweds”?

2. In “As Soldiers March, Alfonso Covers the Boy’s Face with a Newspaper,” how does Sonya react to her cousin’s murder?

3. In “The Map of Bones and Open Valves,” what do Sonya and Alfonso sneak through the city doing? How do they feel about this?

4. In “Alfonso Stands Answerable,” to whom does Alfonso say he is answerable?

5. In "Dramatis Personae," the speaker describes the characters that will be found in the poem. Who are two of the characters, and how are they described?

6. In “Lullaby,” what does Alfonso say will protect his daughter?

7. What does the speaker say in “A Cigarette” about the townspeople?

8. In “Checkpoints” what do the soldiers set up around town and why?

9. What does the speaker say in “For His Wife”?

10. In “The Townspeople Circle the Boy’s Body,” what do the townspeople do to protect Petya’s body?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Time and again the invading army knows how to put the townspeople in their place. What tactics do they use to keep the people from revolting? How do these tactics impact the main characters? How does this behavior educate the reader on how invading armies have succeeded in real-life situations to terrorize whole communities and countries?

Essay Topic 2

The collection of poetry begins and ends with poems about the U.S. What is the subject matter of these poems? What is the purpose of the poems? How do they relate to the rest of the poems? Why might the poet have chosen to have them as bookends for his collection?

Essay Topic 3

In less than a year the lives of the Vasenka townspeople are turned upside down. Sonya is taken from her baby and murdered three days postpartum. What is the impact of this quick decline in the town of Vasenka on the reader? What does this say about one's own safety and security? What does this also reveal about what humans are capable of doing to other humans?

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