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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the new music teacher give Arn as the reason that he does not care whether he lives or dies?
(a) His true passion is for the theater arts, so he is disappointed that he is being forced to teach music instead.
(b) His children are all dead and he does not know where his wife is.
(c) His passion for music has been twisted by the war into something ugly and he can no longer bear to teach it to others.
(d) He has had malaria for months and it has robbed him of his energy.

2. Why do Arn and his siblings live with their aunt?
(a) Because their aunt is rich and can take better care of a large family than their mother can.
(b) Because their mother was overcome with grief after their father died and said she had to leave the family.
(c) Because their mother is dead.
(d) Because after their father's death, their mother had to go far away to find work.

3. What event causes Arn to sneak out and plead with the new music teacher to start exerting effort in his teaching?
(a) A Khmer Rouge guard asks Arn how the band is progressing and whether the new music teacher has a good or a bad character.
(b) Arn knows that the new music teacher is a friend of his mother's and so he wants to preserve the teacher's life.
(c) Arn has taken a genuine interest in the musical arts and wants to do anything he can to fuel his new passion.
(d) Arn realizes that though he can play and teach all of the instruments to the other children, he wants a father figure to be their leader.

4. When Chantou gets mad that Arn is working as a vendor, what is NOT something she says he should be doing instead?
(a) Doing schoolwork.
(b) Learning chants.
(c) Learning how to use a gun.
(d) Doing chores for the monks.

5. How did Arn's father die?
(a) In the hospital while suffering from malaria.
(b) In a motorcycle accident.
(c) In a battle near their village.
(d) In a stage accident during an opera performance.

6. What details does the author include to let the reader know that the kitchen girl's sexual molestation of Arn happens without his consent?
(a) Arn's secret plot to kill the kitchen girl before he escapes and the way in which he pretends to stab her when she turns her back.
(b) The kitchen girl's announcement that she can kill Arn anytime she wants to and Arn's comment that the food she gives him afterward tastes like dust.
(c) Arn's tears of frustration after each session and his anger when he is telling Mek about her actions.
(d) The kitchen girl's threats to kill his family if he tells anyone and Arn's decision to turn the kitchen girl in for a transgression she didn't commit.

7. What event precipitates the band members being fed real rice and being forced to practice their music all night long?
(a) A traveling performance for all the people who have resettled in their home villages since the evacuation.
(b) A performance at a large meeting for all of the highest-ranking Khmer Rouge leaders.
(c) A performance for the American soldiers.
(d) A performance for the Vietnamese soldiers.

8. What dance do Arn and Munny perform for the crowd outside the theater?
(a) The Pony.
(b) The Watusi.
(c) The Twist.
(d) The Swim.

9. What is the stringed instrument called that Arn learns to play in the band?
(a) Viola.
(b) Khim.
(c) Harpsichord.
(d) Dulcimer.

10. Arn eventually discovers the real reason that the band is asked to play at several specific times each day. What is the reason?
(a) To keep the spirits of the soldiers high.
(b) To cover the sound of skulls being cracked as the Khmer Rouge murder captives.
(c) To make the field workers dance at regular intervals to amuse the soldiers.
(d) To keep the band members from running away into the jungle.

11. How do the Khmer Rouge trick the government soldiers into assembling together at the airport so that they can be killed more efficiently?
(a) They tell them that their families are in danger but that they cannot tell them why until they all congregate together for a meeting.
(b) They tell them that the prince has just arrived at the airport and that they should come welcome him back home.
(c) They tell them that they will each be given a large sum of money if they go to the airport to help fix the runways.
(d) They tell them that a large supply of food has just been flown in by the Americans.

12. In what country is Arn's hometown?
(a) Cambodia.
(b) Vietnam.
(c) India.
(d) Thailand.

13. Why do Arn's sister and aunt break down crying when Arn gives them a treat?
(a) They wish he had gotten enough to give every member of the family a treat.
(b) They are worried that he steals to get money.
(c) They feel sorry for him that he has to use his earnings to provide for his family.
(d) They don't like the treat he gives them.

14. What happens to the old man who is Arn's first music teacher?
(a) He escapes into the jungle in the middle of the night.
(b) He dies of exhaustion from the effort needed to help Arn learn the intricacies of his instrument.
(c) He retires from teaching and is allowed to go back to his family in a nearby camp.
(d) The Khmer Rouge soldiers kill him and bury him in the mango grove once he is finished teaching Arn the required songs.

15. What occurs in the American movie that causes Arn and Munny to hide their faces in their shirts?
(a) Kissing.
(b) Displays of wealth like shiny new cars.
(c) A villain looking into the camera.
(d) Bloody battle scenes.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Arn describe the monks at the temple school?

2. Who is in the picture that Arn hangs on his bedroom wall at the beginning of the novel?

3. What is the event that first causes Arn to think maybe the Khmer Rouge have evil intentions?

4. What are the two forms of compensation that the news bearer accepts in return for news about the captives' families?

5. When the trucks of Khmer Rouge soldiers first arrive, what does the radio tell the Cambodian people to do?

(see the answer keys)

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