View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Alvarez punish Lester's threatening the Behranis?

2. How does Lester get into the Behranis' house?

3. What does Behrani instruct Esmail to do when they go into the boy's room?

4. How much bail will Lester have to pay to get out of jail?

5. What does Nadereh ask Kathy as soon as the men have left them alone?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Kathy feel as she goes back into the house to wait for Lester?

2. Which of the Behranis takes responsibility for saving Kathy when they find her after she took the pills?

3. Why does Lester feel that his anger, which is leaving him in the Behrani house, is something precious that he needs?

4. Nadereh berates Behrani while he repairs her mother's table, but he lets her insults "pass over like training jets with no ammunition." Why doesn't he respond to her tirade, and what does she finally say that causes him to enter the argument?

5. Why is Kathy's judgment so confused as she drives to the house and parks in the driveway?

6. Why does Lester feel like a fraud?

7. Although Lester believes Behrani's story, he becomes angry again when Behrani describes Kathy as "drunk." Behrani is angry at Lester when he sees him studying his photo with the shah. How are these two moments similar?

8. Kathy doesn't shower because she doesn't want to clean up, then put on again the clothes she has stolen. How is this a metaphor for her situation now?

9. After Esmail has been shot, the shooting officer looks at Lester. He needs a critical piece of information and Lester doesn't have it, either. What is that piece of information?

10. How do his fellow officers feel about Lester after he has been arrested?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The main characters in this story are preoccupied with how their actions appear to others. If Nadereh was not concerned about impressing her fellow Iranian expatriates, how might the story have been different? If Deputy Gleason had not stopped Lester to thank him for being such a fine example of a police officer, how might the story have been different? Select one of the characters and explain how their preoccupation with impressing others changed the story. Use quotations and examples from the book.

Essay Topic 2

At the end of the story, three of the main characters each say that they got what they deserved. Do you agree with them? Are the final results similar to what you predicted? In this essay, compare your early predictions for the outcome of this conflict with the actual resolution. If your predictions were different, do you like your ideas better than the actual results? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

If Kathy had felt supported rather than criticized by her family, do you think the outcome of this story would have been different? Do you think her feelings are justified by their treatment of her? Using quotations and facts from the text, analyze Kathy's relationships with her mother and brother.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 980 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample