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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. What was the narrator doing when "the world came to an end" (1)?
(a) Chasing a girl.
(b) Studying for finals.
(c) Volunteering in Haiti.
(d) Applying for jobs.

2. What rumors began to spread about infected people?
(a) They were zombies.
(b) They were robots.
(c) They were spies.
(d) They were devils.

3. What term was used to describe the moment when all infected individuals let out a "bizarre shriek" (4)?
(a) The Utterance.
(b) The Plep.
(c) The Shriek.
(d) The Chorus.

4. What happened when a doctor from Martinique took an elderly infected woman to an offshore hospital?
(a) She died within an hour.
(b) She was cured.
(c) She became comatose.
(d) She tore off her restraints and began to crawl back to the quarantine zone.

5. What is the first thing people blame when the infections began to spread?
(a) The cold.
(b) The president.
(c) The heat.
(d) The famine.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why were people not too worried about the infections in the beginning?

2. What is the name of the place the narrator spent much of his time thanks to his friend, Alex?

3. How does Diaz describe the way in which the infection spread?

4. What interest do the narrator and Alex share, which he sense was seen as "a serious mental health disorder" (5)?

5. Where did the narrator meet Alex?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why was it easy to blame the heat on the outbreak of La Negrura?

2. How did the narrator's mother and aunt feel about the situation in Haiti?

3. How did the narrator react when he first heard of La Negrura? What was he more occupied with at the time?

4. Why did interest in La Negrura wane fairly soon after the initial infection?

5. What are some the strange behaviors the infected displayed months after the initial outbreak?

6. Is the narrator being honest when he says his mother did not really want him around her when she was sick? Explain.

7. How did people first react to La Negrura, according to the narrator at the start of the story?

8. Why did the narrator's mother initially come back to the Dominican Republic after living in Brooklyn?

9. Who is Alex? How does he know the narrator? In what ways are they different?

10. What did Alex tell his friends when he introduced them to the narrator? How did his friends react when the narrator told them what he was hoping to become?

(see the answer keys)

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