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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 could Eva NOT afford to do at Christmas when she was in college?

2. What did Eva's teacher, Mr. Jones ask her about that only she could answer?

3. What, according to Eva and her parents, was the "big fear?"

4. What did Penny's sister, Janet, try to do?

5. After traveling to America, what did Eva declare was the capitol of the United States?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Eva mean when she claimed to have "no interior language?"

2. Shortly after the Wydra's arrived in Canada, Eva had a bad dream. What was it and why was it significant?

3. How were Eva's views of communism different from her classmates?

4. Why did Eva's father struggle so much once the family was living in Canada?

5. Once in Canada, how did Eva keep her privacy? What did she hold back? How was she careful in what she said about the difficulties that her family was facing?

6. As Eva learned new words and expressions, why was she baffled by "You're welcome?"

7. Why did Eva believe that speech was a class signifier?

8. How did Canada's work ethic affect Eva's father and his view of himself?

9. When Eva dreamed of staying in Poland, how did she imagine her life would have been had she stayed? What was "normal" to Eva and why did she believe that life in Poland would have been "normal?"

10. Why did Eva choose English as the language she would write in when she received her new diary?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the author describe words as signals? What kind of signals do words give the author? How does she read the signals? Use 2-3 examples of signals as discussed in the book.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

How is language used in Eva's memoir? What is important about the author's first language? What does she miss? What is the author missing with her second language?

(see the answer keys)

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