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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. Who ran The School of the Americas?

2. What does the Colonel take particular pleasure in?

3. What does the Priest prize that Tomas does at Automotores?

4. Who takes Pichuca and Tomas to Isabel's house in Chapter Seventeen?

5. Why is Tomas's mother increasingly worried about him in Chatper Ten?

Short Essay Questions

1. What would happen to prisoners who needed a defibrillator if Tomas was on his days off?

2. Why does Tomas ask Isabel to arrange for the Priests's killing?

3. Why does Tomas feel especially sorry for Elizabeth?

4. Where does Isabel ask Tomas to try to get a job in Chapter Ten?

5. What does Tomas do for Gustavo in Chapter Ten?

6. What do Tomas's co-workers at Automotores call him, and why?

7. How does Tomas feel about Gustavo?

8. What does the Colonel tell Tomas about some of the most terrible torturers at Automotores?

9. In Chapter 11, what does Tomas tell Isabel about his first few weeks at Automotores?

10. In Chapter Fifteen, what is Tomas's "promotion" at the Automotores?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay describing Tomas's relationship with his mother, citing specific references to the text to help support your answers.

Essay Topic 2

How does Loedel's own family history, as he describes it in the afterword, inform his writing of this novel? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 3

How does Loedel describe Tomas's own experience of torture, and how does this description differ from his earlier renderings of the torturing of prisoners? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

(see the answer keys)

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