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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. What did the brass band play as the ship left the harbor when Eva's family sailed for Canada?

2. What city did Eva and her parents get off the ship at when they arrived in Canada?

3. What color were the goldfish at the pond that Eva and her parents often visited in Poland?

4. Where in New York did Eva meet somebody who knew her parents before the war?

5. Who was Eva and Marek's first music teacher?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Eva's parents go to synagogue and practice religion?

2. How did Eva gather memories before the family emigrated to Canada?

3. Why was it important for Eva's mother to have a maid? What role did this maid play in her idea of what a homemaker was?

4. What was the difference between the books that Eva choose from the library and books she had to read in school in Poland?

5. What, according to the author, was middle class in the Poland of her childhood?

6. How did Eva's mother view the idea of being lazy for women?

7. Why did Eva consider the landing of the Batory the end of the narrative of her childhood?

8. What changed in the friendship with Basia after she returned from the camp for young communists?

9. Compare Krysia's adult life with Eva's. What were the differences? What were the similarities? How did you think they viewed each others lives?

10. What was a sanatorium and why did Eva's mother have to go to a sanatorium for a while?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the difference, according to the author, between American women and their mothers and Polish women and their mothers? What kind of relationships do they have? How do emotions play into this?

Essay Topic 2

Name small ways of intimacy that made a difference in Canada. How does Eva feel about these things? What is her reaction to them? Support your discussion by using examples from the book.

Essay Topic 3

How do Eva and Alinka reassure each other as adults? Why do they need this reassurance? What are they missing that gives them the need for this? Are they happy and well-adjusted? How do trips home affect Eva's self-esteem? Why does this happen?

(see the answer keys)

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