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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 Dr. Sasaki feel should happen to the men who decided to use the bomb?

2. On August 18th, what does Father Kleinsorge use his suitcase for?

3. What does Dr. Sasaki eventually get permission from the Red Cross Hospital to do?

4. What does the first army doctor who sees Miss Sasaki say?

5. What does Mr. Tanimoto do after the people at the park are promised to receive help?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens to Mrs. Nakamura's physical condition a few weeks after the bombing?

2. What makes Father Kleinsorge a little hysterical, wanting to cry after feeling thirsty in the dreadful heat?

3. What affect does Father Kleinsorge's answers to Miss Sasaki's questions about life have on her health?

4. How does President Truman describe the atomic bomb during his radio announcement?

5. By mid-September, what is Dr. Sasaki's condition at the Red Cross Hospital?

6. What happens to Father Kleinsorge's physical condition a few weeks after the bombing?

7. Outside, what is the condition of the Red Cross Hospital?

8. After Mr. Tanimoto rescues the people from the sandpit, what stirs his rage?

9. How do the Japanese react to their Emperor's radio broadcast?

10. What in particular makes Miss Sasaki uneasy when she sees the ruins of Hiroshima for the first time?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Miss Sasaki and Mrs. Nakamura are the two women among the six main characters.

Part 1) Compare and contrast the characters of Miss Sasaki and Mrs. Nakamura. How are they different? How are they the same?

Part 2) What are Mrs. Nakamura's major struggles following the bombing? What are Miss Sasaki's major struggles? How do these women's lives turn out in the end?

Part 3) How would Mrs. Nakamura's life and Miss Sasaki's life been different had they had men in their lives?

Essay Topic 2

Weeks after the explosion, people experience radiation sickness.

1. How were some of the characters able to excel despite radiation sickness? Would the characters have been able to push as far had they not experienced the trauma of the atomic bomb and radiation sickness?

2. What immediate actions could the Japanese or other governments, like that of the United states, have done to help ease the peoples' radiation sickness?

Essay Topic 3

John Hersey describes the characters as having "good" or "bad" luck.

1. Does this attitude of having "good" or "bad" luck belong to the particular characters' views or is it the author's description? Cite three examples that support your theory.

2. Which characters in the book may, or are likely to, accept the concept of you make your own luck, and why?

(see the answer keys)

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