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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 word is used for the internet in "Monstro"?

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

3. What rumors began to spread about infected people?

4. What happened when a doctor from Martinique took an elderly infected woman to an offshore hospital?

5. How did Alex make money?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why do you think the author chose to make the main characters 19 years old? What does he say about this age? What would change if they were twice as old or half as young?

Essay Topic 2

Read an online review of "Monstro." Write an essay about how this review impacted your own views or understanding of the story.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss elements of the narrative structure: Exposition, conflict, complication, climax, resolution and conclusion. Do all the elements make for a logical and linear story? How does the story's structure express the story's themes?

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This section contains 720 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample