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. What did the mother of the short man bring to him while he was in jail?

2. What was Salzman's favorite method of teaching English to his Chinese students?

3. Why did the large man who was just released from prison hit his traveling companion in the chest?

4. How many peasants stood waiting at the train station with Salzman the day he met two men just out of jail?

5. What did the runaway steal from the common room in Salzman's apartment?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Pan offer to Salzman toward the end of his stay in China?

2. Why did Salzman draw crowds when he and Teacher Hei went to the bicycle repair stand?

3. Why did Salzman assign co-ed skits to his 1983 English Medical Students class?

4. Why did Professor Jin invite Salzman to tea?

5. Why did Salzman bring a dead rat to the Rat Collection Office?

6. How did Salzman stab himself in the thigh with his sword?

7. What happened when Teacher Wu and the Yale-China Field Staff Director observed Salzman's class?

8. How did Salzman get his medical students to learn through acting skits?

9. Describe Little Mi and Salzman's reaction to her.

10. Why did Salzman kill a rat?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What do you learn about Communist China from reading "Iron & Silk"? How does Salzman reflect on the political as well as the personal in this memoir?

Essay Topic 2

What nicknames was Salzman called while in China? Provide three examples of when and why Salzman received his nicknames. What do these nicknames suggest about others' perception of him?

Essay Topic 3

Salzman received numerous gifts from others during his stay in China. Identify three gifts that changed Salzman's life for the better and explain why he received them.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 944 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample