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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. When was Sanja allergic to everything?

2. What is the young man named David wearing when he introduces himself to Sem and Harun?

3. What color ambulance takes Sanja to the hospital?

4. How long have Sem and Sanja been together when she has her stroke?

5. When does Sem remember that Sanja stepped between him and a murderer?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Sanja's situation by the time she has been in the hospital for four nights?

2. What does Sem think is problematic about how treatment is managed in the hospital?

3. What memory of driving in New Mexico does Sem hope that Sanja has not forgotten?

4. What hangs from Harun's belt, and what does Sem learn about them?

5. Who does Sem remember seeing outside the hotel when he attended the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1999?

6. After Sanja has been in the hospital two days, what does Sem go back to their apartment to get?

7. What does Sem find interesting about the photographs that he and Harun took at Monument Valley?

8. What does Sem remember Harun telling a college interviewer?

9. Why do they not know how to treat Sanja after her stroke?

10. What encounter at a cafe does Sem recall?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Both Sem and Harun’s lives have been affected by trauma. How have Sem and Harun’s lives been affected by trauma? How do they process the trauma they have experienced differently?

Essay Topic 2

A simile is a figure of speech that is used to make comparisons between things. How does the use of metaphors or similes to help readers comprehend concepts? How does the use of similes help readers make the writing more interesting? What purpose do similes serve in the book?

Essay Topic 3

Sem still writes in Bosnian, not English. What is Sem’s relationship to language? Why does he consider himself to be a "prisoner of [his] language" (97)? Why does he still write in Bosnian?

(see the answer keys)

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