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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 happened to Alinka when her mother went to a sanatorium?

2. What is unique about Orlovska's apartment that let Eva know that they had more money than her family?

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

4. What book did Eva's father read that gave him the initial idea to emigrate to Canada?

5. Who's son was Marek?

Short Essay Questions

1. What, according to Eva, threw an "odd light" on Pani Orlovska?

2. What did Eva feel that she was being exiled from as she left Poland?

3. How did Pani Ruta live during the war and why was her family untouched by what was happening to the Jews?

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

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

7. What was an apparatchik in Poland and who, according to Eva, was one? What did they do? What was their function in the political landscape?

8. How did Eva feel about national pride?

9. What emotion did Eva have when she heard the Polish National Anthem as her ship left for Canada?

10. How was life on the ship to Canada like a family?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the age difference between Eva and her sister affect Eva's sister? How is she more quickly "Americanized?" Why do you think this is? At what ages did the girls emigrate? Why is this important? Support your essay with quotes from the book.

Essay Topic 2

How are women portrayed in the story? What are their roles? How are they viewed by the author? How are they viewed by others in the story? By men? Give examples to support your statements.

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the story, explain the meaning of "being Jewish" to the author. Give examples of how she explains her "Jewishness" at different times in her life and how her views of her ethnic background changes with each major geographical move in her life.

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