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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Why does the kitchen girl give Arn extra food?
(a) Because he threatens to hurt her if she does not.
(b) Because she is a member of the Khmer Rouge and realizes that he needs strength in order to do his job and play music well.
(c) Because she says he looks too skinny.
(d) Because he has become famous from playing his kihm and she admires him.

3. When Arn is told by a Khmer Rouge soldier that he has a new job in addition to his job as a musician in the band, what does that new job turn out to be?
(a) He has to push the dead and dying into the mass grave in the mango grove.
(b) He has to take away the material belongings from the captives' tents and give them to the soldiers.
(c) He has to cook for all of the children in the camp.
(d) He has to clean the area where the whole camp relieves themselves.

4. What lesson does Arn learn from his experience getting told on by another boy in the camp?
(a) He learns to observe others and gather information about their behavior so he can use it against them later if necessary.
(b) He learns that the soldiers are more merciful than he had previously thought, since they do not physically beat him for his transgression.
(c) He learns to never take breaks during his work day, no matter what happens.
(d) He learns that sleeping in the manure pile is actually warmer and more comfortable than sleeping on the ground in his tent.

5. 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 don't like the treat he gives them.
(c) They are worried that he steals to get money.
(d) They feel sorry for him that he has to use his earnings to provide for his family.

Short Answer Questions

1. When a new letter carrier arrives to bring news to the camp, what news does he bring to Arn?

2. What method does Mek, the new music teacher, tell Arn that he uses to survive?

3. After asking Sombo many times why he is permissive with Arn and overlooks his breaking of the rules, Sombo reveals the reason. What does he say is the reason?

4. When another child captive tells on Arn for lying to increase his number of work breaks, what do the Khmer Rouge soldiers impose as Arn's punishment?

5. What is it about Arn that makes the soldier let him go without even a warning when he is caught sneaking to Mek's tent in the night?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Arn tell the reader about his family background within the exposition part of the story?

2. When Arn's curiosity gets the better of him and he finally asks Sombo the reason for his permissiveness concerning Arn's behavior, what reasoning does Sombo provide and what is the author's purpose in portraying Sombo's character in this particular way?

3. Though at first, the villagers think that the jeeps and trucks pouring into the village is a good sign and means that the war is over, what is the first thing that happens to make Arn realize that the opposite is true?

4. How does Arn describe his village at the opening of the novel before the Khmer Rouge arrive?

5. What happens to the pregnant woman and her husband who are walking next to Arn within the mass exodus of all cities? What lesson does Arn learn from seeing what happens?

6. When the current leader of the camp tells Mek that he and band will soon be going somewhere new, they are all terrified that they will be killed instead and that this is just another instance of the Khmer Rouge's euphemisms. However, they are not killed and what happens instead introduces the theme of fame into the novel. What happens in lieu of their deaths?

7. When the evacuees are finally allowed to stop to set up camp in groups of around a thousand people each, what do Arn and his little sister Sophea discover about the Khmer Rouge's philosophies when they sneak around listening to the soldiers' conversations?

8. How is the theme of generosity demonstrated in the scene when the children are finally fed rice in anticipation of their first performance for the Khmer Rouge soldiers?

9. What is the significance of the escape from camp by the boy from Arn's village?

10. How does the author use the juxtaposition between the kitchen girl's molestation of Arn and the comfort he then seeks within Mek's embrace? What is her purpose in using this juxtaposition?

(see the answer keys)

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