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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. 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?
(a) He says that he has a special affinity for Arn because of his musical talent.
(b) He says that he hates what the Khmer Rouge make him do to punish children who break the rules, so he tries not to turn them in if he can help it.
(c) He says that he knew Arn's father before he was killed and that he feels a responsibility to take care of Arn.
(d) He says that he was an orphan who was forced to steal in order to survive as well.

2. When some new children arrive at the camp and one of them refuses to cut her hair, how is she punished?
(a) She is denied any food besides grass for weeks.
(b) She is required to sleep in the manure pile for three nights.
(c) She is put inside a drum on the temple steps as they beat it and light a fire under it.
(d) She is wrapped in canvas and tossed high into the air for hours.

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 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.
(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 knows that the new music teacher is a friend of his mother's and so he wants to preserve the teacher's life.

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

5. What is the event that first causes Arn to think maybe the Khmer Rouge have evil intentions?
(a) Hi sister tells him that all of the girls in the village are being rounded up by the soldiers in order to force the girls to cut their hair short.
(b) He sees a soldier kill a boy when the boy refuses his request for a motorcycle ride.
(c) A soldier sees Arn selling his wares on the street and tips over his cart for no apparent reason.
(d) He sees a soldier speaking roughly to a monk at his temple school.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do the rich kids do to Arn when he is selling his wares near the school?

2. How old is Arn when the novel's narrative first begins?

3. When the Khmer Rouge soldiers take all of the captives' clothes and burn them, what clothing do they provide instead?

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

5. What details does the author include to let the reader know that the kitchen girl's sexual molestation of Arn happens without his consent?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is ironic about the fact that the rice crop falls significantly short of the Khmer Rouge's expectations and they then reduce everyone's food allotment even further than before?

2. 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?

3. Why do the Khmer Rouge burn everyone's clothes and all of their material belongings?

4. 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?

5. What do Arn and his little brother Munny do after they sneak in to see the American movie and what happens to make them hide?

6. 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?

7. 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?

8. Who is the emaciated girl with the missing teeth and loose skin who arrives at Arn's camp and what does he learn from her?

9. When Arn sneaks out to tell Mek about the soldier who forced him to cook the liver of a murdered captive, he is caught by a soldier but does not suffer the dire consequences he is expecting. What happens instead and what significance does it hold for Arn?

10. When Arn finally realizes the true purpose of the band's music, he is shocked and saddened. What is that purpose and how does it transform Arn's idea of the music he plays with the other members of the band under Mek's guidance?

(see the answer keys)

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