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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. While the camp is having a party, who comes to encourage the workers to strike?
(a) Ramon.
(b) Marta.
(c) Emmanuel.
(d) Frederico.

2. What do the families have for dessert on their first dinner together?
(a) Fried dough.
(b) Canteloupe.
(c) Corn bread.
(d) Rice pudding.

3. The title of Chapter 8 is Las Ciruelas, the plums. What is the significance of the plums in this chapter?
(a) The plums are part of what Esperanza cooks for dinner.
(b) The plums are what she gives to a hungry child.
(c) The plums cause the babies' sickness.
(d) The plums are what Esperanza shines and puts on the table.

4. Who encourages Esperanza to do her first job well so she will get hired again?
(a) Juan.
(b) Hortensia.
(c) Irene.
(d) Miguel.

5. In Chapter 8, who tells Esperanza that the strike that was planned for the next day will not take place?
(a) Miguel.
(b) Alfonso.
(c) Mama.
(d) Isabel.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Esperanza get back and forth to the camp from the hospital?

2. How do Irene and Melina help the Ortega household?

3. What does Isabel see at the party that she would like very much to have?

4. What does Esperanza do to earn money once she is the only one in her family working?

5. When Esperanza asks Isabel for news that she has heard at school, what is the new construction that Isabel tells them about?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the sequence of events from Miguel and Esperanza's argument, to her money missing work to cast suspicion on Miguel as the thief?

2. Isabel wants to be the May Day Queen. When she tells Esperanza this, what is ironic about her reason for wanting to be this queen?

3. As Miguel and Esperanza drive to the market, what does Esperanza notice, apparently for the first time about herself?

4. When Esperanza helps Marta after the immigration sweep, what is it about Marta that wins over Esperanza?

5. In Chapter 9, when Esperanza brings the blanket to the hospital, why do she and Mama cry?

6. In what way is Mama's illness a commentary on the working conditions of the migrant workers?

7. When the doctor comes to examine Mama and diagnose her illness, how does Esperanza react?

8. How does the short, intimate exchange Mama and Esperanza have after the jamaica effect Esperanza's mood?

9. How is the act of Esperanza's gift of the porcelain doll symbolic?

10. Comment on the image of communal life at this work camp once the work day is over that Ryan portrays in Chapter 7.

(see the answer keys)

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