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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 does Mia bring back for Li from school one day?

2. What is one secret Mia keeps from Lupe about the hotel?

3. What analogy does Lupe use for the rich and poor in America?

4. Who is the son of the owner of the Calivista Motel?

5. What important machine breaks in the hotel during Mia's family's first weeks there?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Mia's class act when Mrs. Douglas introduces China as the topic?

2. What impresses Jason Yao about Mia in Chapter 14?

3. In Chapter 9, what event provides an unexpected moment of joy for Mia and her family?

4. Why was the memory of the chocolate-scented notebook such a painful one for Mia?

5. Why does Mia stop just before she tells her new fifth-grade class she lives in a motel?

6. What kind of trouble does Uncle Ming tell Mia's parents he has gotten into?

7. What conclusion does Mia come to about the profitability of the Calivista Motel?

8. What does the security guard from the Topaz Inn propose to Mia?

9. Why does Mia's mother get fired from her job at the Chinese restaurant in Part I?

10. What does Mr. Yao tell Mia is the difference between a good employee and a bad employee?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How and why does Mia begin to build close friendships with some of the "weeklies," like Hank Caleb, at the Calivista? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help explain your answers.

Essay Topic 2

What do readers learn from Yang's extensive Author's Note at the end of this novel? How does reading the Author's Note potentially affect a reader's understanding of the novel and some of its major themes? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 3

Why does Mia keep her tip jar at the Calivista a secret from her parents? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text.

(see the answer keys)

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