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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which of the following is NOT something Rifka does at the hospital?
(a) Eat potatoes.
(b) Watch over her mama.
(c) Sing to the patients.
(d) Learns to speak Polish.

2. Why can Rifka not remember her older brothers in America?
(a) She lost their pictures.
(b) They were killed in the war.
(c) No one ever talks about them.
(d) They left Russia before she was born.

3. What is Rifka's last name?
(a) Goscinski.
(b) Vosberg.
(c) Walesa.
(d) Nebrot.

4. What do the Russian guards use to search the train?
(a) Prisoners.
(b) Bayonets.
(c) Dogs.
(d) Flashlights.

5. Where are Rifka's family members taken when they get ill?
(a) A church.
(b) A clinic.
(c) A medical tent.
(d) A hospital.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do the guards make Rifka's family do at the Polish border?

2. Who are Rifka's brothers?

3. Who is the only one in Rifka's family who can speak Russian without a Yiddish accent?

4. Which of the following is NOT one of Rifka's older brothers living in America?

5. How old is Rifka at the beginning of the book?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Rifka doing as the novel opens?

2. What is missing from Rifka's rucksack when it is returned to her and how does she feel about the loss?

3. What causes Rifka to scratch her chest until she bleeds in the night?

4. What is Saul's advice for preventing the innkeeper's daughter from eating her food in the future?

5. What is revealed about why Rifka and her family had to leave Russia?

6. Why will the steamship company not sell a ticket to Rifka for passage to America?

7. What happens when Mama, Papa and Nathan come down with typhus, and where do Rifka and Saul go?

8. Describe Rifka's personality traits and which is probably her strongest trait?

9. What is Uncle Avrum's role in helping Rifka's family escape on the train?

10. What is revealed about Rifka and her family, and why they had to leave Russia?

(see the answer keys)

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