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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When regretting the family's decision to leave Cuba, Lito says that "The US has no" (101) what?
(a) Soul.
(b) Heart.
(c) Empathy.
(d) Rules.

2. What do Mahmoud and his brother Waleed do when they see two boys robbing another boy of a loaf of bread?
(a) They find a policeman.
(b) They make noise in hopes of distracting the robbers.
(c) They challenge the robbers.
(d) They hide and then sneak away.

3. What does Ivan want to be when he grows up?
(a) A professional baseball player.
(b) A marine biologist.
(c) A doctor.
(d) A professional soccer player.

4. Ivan's favorite team, The Industriales, is what type of team?
(a) A soccer team.
(b) A baseball team.
(c) A basketball team.
(d) A lacrosse team.

5. Who does not attend Josef's bar mitzvah, much to Josef's dismay?
(a) Josef's best friend.
(b) Josef's father.
(c) Josef's sister.
(d) Josef's mother.

6. How does Isabel's father sustain the wounds that she is cleaning when the narrative rejoins her?
(a) He is shot in the melee of the riots.
(b) He falls off a ladder at his job.
(c) He is beaten by police.
(d) He is beaten by a mugger.

7. When Mahmoud's family receives the name of a nearby hotel that "accepts Syrians" (105), why do they not stay there?
(a) It is in a dangerous neighborhood.
(b) It is too expensive.
(c) They cannot find it and eventually give up.
(d) It is already full of other families sharing rooms.

8. For what reason has Josef's family recently moved to a smaller apartment in Berlin upon the opening of the novel?
(a) Due to recently-enacted Nazi laws.
(b) Due to Josef's father losing his job.
(c) Due to their previous apartment being destroyed by a missile.
(d) Due to an altercation with the landlord of the previous apartment.

9. What reason does Isabel's father give for forbidding anyone to strike a match even though their boat is about to be hit by a tanker?
(a) He thinks the current wind will immediately extinguish the flame.
(b) He does not want them to waste their few matches.
(c) Being saved will result in being sent back to Cuba.
(d) The tanker is likely manned by human traffickers.

10. When the narrative rejoins Josef in 1939, each member of the family is now wearing what item?
(a) A Star of David armband.
(b) A Star of David tattoo.
(c) A prisoner number placard.
(d) A red jacket.

11. What is NOT a way in which Josef's father has changed since being imprisoned in a concentration camp?
(a) He has rage in his eyes.
(b) He is paranoid.
(c) He is gaunt.
(d) He is thin.

12. To what concentration camp is Josef's father sent whee he is taken into "protective custody" (3)?
(a) Auschwitz.
(b) Buchenwald.
(c) Dachau.
(d) Bergen-Belsen.

13. When Ivan says that one thing he wants to do in America is watch American television, what show does he cite?
(a) Wheel of Fortune.
(b) The Simpsons.
(c) Seinfeld.
(d) South Park.

14. What shared characteristic had bonded the Soviet Union to Cuba prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union?
(a) Communism.
(b) Socialism.
(c) Egalitarianism.
(d) Democracy.

15. What does Isabel give the fisherman in return for gasoline to power Ivan's family's boat?
(a) A coat.
(b) A backpack.
(c) Mofongo.
(d) A trumpet.

Short Answer Questions

1. The Nazis who storm Josef's family's home are never depicted directly by the author. Instead, what word is used to refer to them throughout the scene?

2. What happens to halt the song being sung by the occupants of Isabel's boat?

3. What show is Waleed watching when the family's apartment is destroyed by a missile?

4. How many Jewish men must gather to form a minyan in order to comply with Jewish law in the holding of a bar mitzvah?

5. When Mahmoud's family arrives in the refugee camp in Turkey, Mahmoud's father reveals that he has found a smuggler who can get family from Turkey to what country?

(see the answer keys)

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