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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. How does Gabi feel about her SAT results?

2. What does Eric say when Gabi tells him the news about her mother?

3. What is one of the worst parts of Gabi's father's attempts to quit drugs?

4. What is Gabi's dream college?

5. What is Sebastian worried about telling his parents about in August?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where does Gabi most want to go to college as she sends her applications out?

2. What upsets Gabi about the way Eric treats Sebastian at the mall?

3. Who is Gabi named after?

4. What does Gabi's poem that she shared in class in October reveal about her relationship with her grandfather?

5. Who asks Gabi out after she breaks up with Eric, and how does she feel about it?

6. What does Gabi and her family find out about her father in September that really upsets them?

7. Why does Sebastian end up staying with Gabi and her family for a while?

8. Why does Gabi start writing letters to her father that she never gives to him?

9. Why is Beto so upset with his father right after Thanksgiving and what does he tell Gabi about his feelings?

10. Why does Gabi think her own mother should have more sympathy for Cindy after Cindy finds out she is pregnant?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay analyzing how going to shows and performing at The Grind Effect, the coffee shop where Gabi first encounters spoken word poetry performance, influences Gabi's self-esteem and sense of her place in a community of writers and artists.

Essay Topic 2

Gabi sometimes feels as if her mother will not accept her as she is because she is overweight, but her friends Cindy, Sebastian, and her classmate Georgina also experience serious tensions with their families over the issue of acceptance. Choose one of Gabi's friends or classmates and write an essay comparing Gabi's problems with her own mother around unconditional love and acceptance to those of the character you have chosen, citing specific references to the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Although Gabi loves her family fiercely, she dreams of leaving her hometown to attend college, which she is poised to do at the novel's end after being admitted to Berkeley. Write an essay analyzing the ways in which Gabi chooses to break with her family's traditions and expectations of her.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 830 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample