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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 is Linda Loman's warning that Hudes thinks of in relation to her family members' deaths?

2. What does Sharon tell Hudes on the day of her wedding to her father?

3. Who was the one Perez who could pull Hudes onto the dance floor?

4. In the end of Chapter 13, what does Hudes think of as yet another new language?

5. What is Sedo's given name?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Hudes's mother Virginia tell her happened to her own father's family?

2. What are Hudes's memories of Mary Lou?

3. What happens when Hudes gets her first period?

4. Why do Hudes's parents split up?

5. In Chapter 13, what does Sedo buy for Hudes and how does it affect her?

6. In Chapter 1, how does Hudes feel when leaving West Philly as a very young girl?

7. In Chapter 6, what does Hudes's father ask her that she knows he is not really serious about?

8. In Chapter 9, why is Flor absent from the celebration?

9. In Chapter 6, what does Sharon tell Hudes on the day of the wedding?

10. In Chapter 10, what disease affects many of Hudes's family members that her family does not want to discuss?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why does Hudes decide to pursue a career in writing rather than music? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 2

How does Hudes feel about her stepmother Sharon when she and Hudes's father marry, and how do her feelings towards Sharon change over the course of the novel? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 3

How does Hudes react when some older writers express surprise and even skepticism that she is writing with such frankness about her Puerto Rican family and their traditions? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

(see the answer keys)

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