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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. Why does Sombo return to the hidden village to kill everyone who lives there?
(a) Because he goes back to steal their food and they put up a struggle, so he kills them.
(b) Because he has become thirsty for blood after a lack of battle for so long.
(c) Because he thinks they told the Vietnamese his group's location.
(d) Because he is worried that if he does not, the villagers will sneak into their camp and kill them first.

2. The leader with the white shorts orders Arn to come entertain his guests at a party he is throwing at his house. For how many days does the party last?
(a) 5 days.
(b) 7 days.
(c) 3 days.
(d) 2 days.

3. Besides the fact that Arn was a child soldier and Sojeat and Ravi were not, what other main difference is there between his background and theirs?
(a) Arn's family was religious, while the families of Sojeat and Ravi were not.
(b) Sojeat and Ravi used to look up the Khmer Rouge soldiers, while Arn did everything he could to rebel against them.
(c) Arn's parents both raised him until the Khmer Rouge came, while the parents of Sojeat and Ravi were divorced before then.
(d) Sojeat's and Ravi's families had enough money to send them to school.

4. One time when Sombo's group passes another platoon in the woods, he recognizes that platoon's rice girl. Who is it?
(a) His little sister Sophea.
(b) His older sister Jorami.
(c) His older sister Chantou.
(d) His older sister Maly.

5. At one point, Arn becomes so hungry and thirsty and eats fruit off the ground even though there is something wrong with it. What's wrong with it?
(a) It is not yet ripe.
(b) It is been partially digested by an animal and he finds it in animal excrement.
(c) It is rotten and infested with maggots.
(d) It is been pecked at by many birds.

Short Answer Questions

1. What happens to cause Arn to say that now "even the earth is our enemy" (126)?

2. Once Sombo's group dwindles to a number of only seven kids, plus Sombo and Koong, they become so tired that they drop most of what they have been carrying. What are the two things they continue to carry?

3. What is the name of the only other boy at the Children's Center who was formerly a child soldier besides Arn?

4. When he is mistaken for a member of the Khmer Rouge by one of their leaders, what is Arn's reaction?

5. Mr. Pond's question to Arn about which two boys are his favorite elicits a response naming Sojeat and Ravi, even though Arn admits to the reader that his actual favorite boy is Runty. Why does he not list Runty among the names he tells Mr. Pond?

Short Essay Questions

1. What new privileges does Arn receive while acting as the leader's assistant of sorts and what feelings do these new privileges inspire in him?

2. Arn and Missus Gotobed, the headmistress of the Children's Center, become furious with Mr. Pond for his behavior on two separate occasions for two different reasons. How do those reasons differ?

3. Why does Arn turn over all of the dead bodies of the villagers to look into their faces?

4. What is the author's purpose for including Arn's comment that "now even the earth is our enemy"? (126)

5. How does the author present the theme of the unnatural when Kha tells Arn and Siv that if they stay hidden, they can watch the girls bathe in the nude?

6. Why does Arn begin to shake after he boards the bus with the other refugees?

7. Why do Arn, Siv, and Kha kick dirt over their excrement after they eat the sweet potato Arn brings back from the leader's house?

8. Conditioning is the automatic response of one's body that happens over a period of time when one is subjected to repeated negative and/or positive reinforcement in order to facilitate a particular response. The soldiers tell Arn and Siv that he has a new job for them, lead them to a temple, make them watch as they murder the elderly prisoners there, and order Arn and Siv to urinate on the bodies of the dead and dying old men. Arn thinks that there is no way he'll be able to comply, but when he looks down, he sees that urine is pouring out of his body onto the dead men's heads. What is the author's purpose in including this incident?

9. When Arn determines that he has been away from his home village for two and a half years, how does he reach this conclusion?

10. When the Khmer Rouge put Arn and 19 other boys into a platoon they call Little Fish with the Big Sting, what thought of Arn's acts as foreshadowing for the coming carnage?

(see the answer keys)

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