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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 looking at Soraya's picture make Kathy feel?

2. What does Lester see in Kathy's car that alarms him when he arrives at the house?

3. How does Behrani react to his wife's leaving the burden of action to him while they are held hostage?

4. What does Lester call the Whore Twenty-Four?

5. How does Kathy feel while she waits for Lester?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Behrani's feelings change when he finds Kathy in the car in his driveway?

2. 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?

3. What is nazr?

4. Why does Lester feel like a fraud?

5. Why does Lester conclude that the Behranis have told him the truth about Kathy's situation?

6. Why doesn't Behrani attempt to negotiate with Lester when he breaks in and holds them at gunpoint?

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

8. Kathy says that she only has one hope now while she's waiting for Lester to return. What does she hope?

9. When Nadereh told Lester that her husband was "only good," Behrani believed that she had a different meaning than a positive comment on his character. What does Behrani believe Nadereh meant?

10. Why does young Deputy Gleason's expression of gratitude when he encounters Lester on the street make Lester feel worse?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

The gun is an important symbol in this story. Those who are holding it sometimes feel stronger when they have it, sometimes weaker, as if it is a burden. In your essay, track the path of the gun from hand to hand, with the effect that it has on each person who carries it. Start with this thought: Do you think it is unusual that Lester would leave his gun with Kathy? Do policemen do such things under normal circumstances? What do you make of that occurrence?

Essay Topic 3

Events in Iran many years before the opening of this story shape the thinking of the characters in the present. The photo of Behrani with the shah is an important symbol in this story. In this essay, consider the effect of the photo on Nadereh, on Soraya, on Soraya's in-laws, on Lester, on Kathy, and on Behrani himself. Use quotations from the story in each instance.

(see the answer keys)

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