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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 does the author remember playing soccer with in his homeland in "Memories"?

2. What disease had Mawi's father contracted in "A New Life"?

3. Frank and Mbago were brothers from _______________.

4. Where did Mawi's mother take him and his siblings to find their father in "Memories"?

5. What country borders Eritrea to the south?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What did Mawi's father teach his children about strangers in "God's Angels"?

3. How does the author describe his origins in the Author's Note? What is the political history of this region?

4. Where did Mawi's family live as refugees in "The Camp"? Where did his father work?

5. What did the strangers from Mawi's homeland bring to his family in "A New Life"? How did they help his mother?

6. What memories does the author describe of his childhood home in "Memories"? What does he question about the memories?

7. Who agreed to sponsor Mawi's family in "A New Life"? What did Mawi's family make of the sights of Chicago?

8. How did the children in Mawi's new home perceive his family, as described in "Playground Warfare"? How did they treat them?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the theme of sacrifice in the narrative, and examine the reasons for Haileab's sacrifice in leaving his homeland. What dangers did his family face in staying where they were? Why did Haileab leave behind his wealth and everything he owned? How many others faced the same perils in order to escape?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Mawi's father's sense of morality and the morality he instilled in his sons. Was the story told by Mawi's father about the boy stealing realistic for the time and place in which it occurred? What punishment did the boys face for their actions after stealing the parking meter? Why did they fear their father more than the police officer?

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?

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