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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. In "The Beans and Rice Chronicles of Isaiah Dunn," who is Isaiah's best friend?

2. In "The Difficult Path," what is the passage from Li Po about?

3. In "Sol Painting, Inc.," what is Merci's father getting in exchange for painting the school?

4. In "How to Transform," who wants the narrator to play on his team?

5. In "How to Transform," who takes the narrator to his father's factory to prove who he is?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does "How to Transform" end, and what has the narrator learned by the end?

2. In "Sol Painting, Inc.," what does Merci plan to do when she grows up?

3. In "The Beans and Rice Chronicles," who is Mr. Shephard?

4. In "How to Transform," what role does the narrator's Mexican heritage play in the story?

5. In "How to Transform," why does the narrator want to go to the gym in Balboa in the first place?

6. In "How to Transform," why does the narrator decide to give up going to the gym, and what happens when he does?

7. In "Secret Samantha," what happens when Samantha goes to the mall with her mother to buy a gift for Blade?

8. In "The Beans and Rice Chronicles," who is Miz Rita?

9. In "The Difficult Path," how is it that Lingsi finally learns to read?

10. In "The Beans and Rice Chronicles," how does the relationship between Isaiah and his mother erupt?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Many of these stories are told in an unusual way. For example, "Choctaw, Bigfoot, Midnight in the Mountains" is the story of someone telling a story; "Seventy-Six Dollars and Forty-Nine Cents "is told in verse; "The Beans and Rice Chronicles of Isaiah Dunn" is told as a series of journal entries." Choose at least two stories from the collection and compare and contrast how they are told and how the storytelling method affects the stories' meanings.

Essay Topic 2

Choose two or more stories from this collection and write an essay in which you compare/ contrast how money plays an important role in what happens and the messages the authors are trying to get across.

Essay Topic 3

In an essay, trace the development of leaves as a symbol in the story "Main Street." How does the writer use them and what point is she trying to make with them?

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