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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. What is the stringed instrument called that Arn learns to play in the band?

2. How does Arn find out unequivocally that the government soldiers who answered the Khmer Rouge's call to go to the airport were subsequently murdered?

3. Upon realizing that Arn is teasing him by putting a stone on his chest instead of the customary lump of sugar, Mek tells Arn that he has a treat for him. What is the treat?

4. While the captives subsist on tiny amounts of rice and garbage, what do the Khmer Rouge eat?

5. Once Arn and his group is allowed to stop walking and they form a camp, what two groups do the Khmer Rouge soldiers separate the captives into?

Short Essay Questions

1. After Arn is chosen by Khmer Rouge leaders to play music in their band, Arn sees there are positive results and negative results of his being chosen. What are they and what does this show about one's fate under the rule of the Khmer Rouge?

2. 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?

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

4. 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?

5. 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?

6. When a new mail carrier comes into camp, he shares some news with Arn. What part of the news does Arn doubt and what is the significance of this doubt?

7. 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?

8. 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?

9. 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?

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the significance of the novel's title and of the repeated references to it throughout the novel. What is the author's purpose in including the theme of "never falling down," both in the title and throughout the narrative of the novel?

Essay Topic 2

The first mention of revolution in the novel occurs on page 24 when a Khmer Rouge soldier mentions it and Arn tells the reader he has not heard the word before. There are many different types of revolution, including social revolutions and personal revolutions. Compare and contrast the revolution undertaken by the Khmer Rouge with the personal revolution Arn experiences by the end of the novel.

Essay Topic 3

After his forced separation from his family, Arn builds many relationships with others that resemble family relationships. Choose three characters with whom Arn builds these familial relationships, describe the circumstances surrounding the bonds he forms with these characters, and discuss how these relationships fuel the author's message about the definition of family.

(see the answer keys)

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