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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 Alfonso cannot believe about his door-slamming wife?

2. In “A City Like a Guillotine Shivers on Its Way to the Neck,” what does Alfonso do?

3. How "Soldiers Don't Like Looking Foolish" end?

4. Alfonso and three-day old Anushka come home to their apartment where they find what?

5. Galya compares her body to what, so that God can watch the small child pulling up on a chair and Galya’s neighbors get arrested?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the eulogy given at Alfonso’s funeral?

2. What takes place right before and after the killing of the soldier?

3. What do the boys of Vasenka want to do because Sonya was murdered?

4. How is the soldier treated prior to being killed?

5. How does Alfonso try to make life fun for his daughter?

6. What are two things the speaker says in “Such Is the Story Made of Stubbornness and a Little Air”?

7. What do the beautiful women of Vasenka do?

8. What education does the speaker say Momma Galya gives?

9. In “A Bundle of Laundry,” what has happened to Anushka?

10. In “Galya’s Toast,” what does Galya toast?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The first person shot and killed is a young deaf boy. What leads to his death? Why might he have acted this way? Do you see this as brave or foolish? Why or why not? Might he have realized the repercussions of his actions? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Puppets are symbolic in this poem. What is the purpose of the puppets? What do they represent? Are they an effective use of symbolism? Why or why not?

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This section contains 745 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample