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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 animal does Hudes's mother keep in the backyard?

2. Where is Hudes born?

3. In Chapter 2, where does Hudes want to go to visit?

4. What does Hudes think not crying at funerals means for her?

5. Who is the host of all parties in Hudes's family?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. When did Virginia, Hudes's mother, have strange nightmares as a child?

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

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

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

6. In Chapter 6, how does Hudes spend her father's wedding?

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

8. In Chapter 3, what does Hudes's father say when she asks him if God is real?

9. How does Hudes eventually come to feel about Sedo?

10. What happens to Mary Lou in Chapter 10?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

Why does Hudes's conversation with Sharon and her father about welfare and taxes leave such a bad and lasting impression on her? 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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