View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is a literary device in which an author indistinctly suggests certain plot developments that might come later in the story?

2. What animals does the author remember shrieking in the beginning of "Memories"?

3. What upper middle class community did Mawi's family move to upon finding a sponsor in "A New Life"?

4. Eritrea and Ethiopia had fought a civil war until what year?

5. What was the name of the woman who would take the children to the college to play soccer and play on the playground in "God's Angels"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What incident does Mawi describe of being bullied terribly in "Playground Warfare"? Who saved him?

2. What symbolism is employed in describing Mawi's younger brother's birth in "A New Life"?

3. How does the author explain the meaning of his name in the Author's Note? Whose story does he assert Of Beetles and Angels tells in this preface?

4. What did Mawi's parents believe about education, as described in "Playground Warfare"? Why?

5. What woman helped Mawi's family find a sponsor in "A New Life"? How did the family adjust to the culture shock of the new country?

6. How does Mawi describe his memories of his family as refugees in "The Camp"?

7. How does the author describe the Sudanese rebels in "The Camp"? Where did the author's father want to go in order to find security?

8. What deferred Mawi's family from leaving for America in 1982 in "Coming to America"?

9. Who helped Mawi's family in "Coming to America"? What does this organization do?

10. How does the author describe the educational system and his interaction with other children in "The Camp"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Identify and analyze the theme of bullying in the narrative. In what ways were Mawi and his siblings picked on by the other students in America? Why? Where previously had Mawi and his siblings dealt with bullies? What was different about their interactions with them in America?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the settings of Chicago and Wheaton, Illinois. How do the settings of Chicago and Wheaton differ? What were the author's first impressions of each? In what year did Mawi's family arrive? How much English did the members of the family speak?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the history, geography and cultures of Eritrea and Ethiopia. When did civil war break out between these nations? What were conditions of the war like? When did the political upheavals during the 1980s and 1990s originate? What led to the civil war?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 987 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample