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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. When the boy discovers that a Polaroid picture will not develop properly in the light, what object does he use to protect his photos?
(a) A book.
(b) A box.
(c) A box of tissues.
(d) A paper bag.

2. The woman realizes at one point that the boy and girl use the term "lost children" (74) to refer to whom?
(a) Cousins.
(b) Trafficked children.
(c) Ghosts.
(d) Child refugees.

3. In what type of dwelling had the man, woman, boy, and girl first lived together?
(a) A commune.
(b) A house.
(c) An apartment.
(d) An immigration detention facility.

4. After the man and woman are finished with their language project, the man takes on a project about what Native tribe?
(a) Osage.
(b) Apache.
(c) Iroquois.
(d) Comanche.

5. The woman reflects upon the fact that "it takes clarity of mind and humility of heart" to understand that children can read and understand what text?
(a) War and Peace.
(b) Paradise Lost.
(c) The Bible.
(d) Anna Karenina.

Short Answer Questions

1. The woman states that in the past "six or seven months" (18) over how many undocumented children from Mexico and the Northern Triangle had been detained at the southern U.S. border?

2. Which member of the family at the narrative's center identifies as a "documentarist" (98)?

3. The woman muses at one point that what element, when "real and sustained" (82) is hard to achieve within marriage?

4. What emotion does the woman say that the boy "normally represses" (37)?

5. Which member of the family gets the greatest number of allocated boxes for the trip?

Short Essay Questions

1. While the woman does not keep a journal, she uses what other method that she believes serves the same purpose?

2. What "superstitious impulse" (68) is the woman always unable to resist?

3. What quality does the woman say is difficult to maintain within a marriage in a "real and sustained" (82) manner?

4. How does the woman react to hearing the radio interview with the boy being held in a Texas detention center?

5. When the woman is conflicted about whether to record the sounds of the family's road trip, what does she say she wishes she could do instead?

6. What prompts the woman to begin to record the man's Apache stories as he tells them?

7. What do the boy and girl call child refugees and what is the woman's reaction to their choice?

8. How does the man reply when the boy asks him why he has chosen the Apache tribe as the subject of his newest project?

9. Describe how Luiselli uses the theme of appearance versus reality to characterize the notion of romantic partnership.

10. Discuss one of the quotes Luiselli uses as an epigraph within Part I: Soundscapes and how its themes are reflected within the first few passages of the novel.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,310 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample