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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. Where does the Greek Coast Guard take Mahmoud and the other refugees at dawn once the boat is full of people?
(a) Cypress.
(b) Tuscany.
(c) Sicily.
(d) Lesbos.

2. What words does Josef's father scream throughout his rescue from the ocean?
(a) "Let me die!"
(b) "Get away!"
(c) "Vengeance will be mine!"
(d) "Please help me!"

3. When Josef's father is in the throes of a mental breakdown, he tells Josef that each night at the concentration camp, the prisoners were forced to watch one prisoner do what?
(a) Be buried alive.
(b) Drown.
(c) Commit suicide by gunshot.
(d) Burn.

4. Why is Belgrade, Serbia an unsafe place for Mahmoud and his family?
(a) The Serbian police are raiding hotels looking for illegal refugees.
(b) Many Serbians are employed as informers for the government.
(c) Many people in Serbia are Islamophobic.
(d) The Serbian police shoot first and ask questions later.

5. What action does Waleed take throughout the entire robbery by the taxi driver, causing Mahmoud to worry about his emotional well-being?
(a) He sucks his thumb.
(b) He sleeps.
(c) He sobs.
(d) He rocks.

Short Answer Questions

1. Of the refugees boarding the dinghy with Mahmoud's family, what does the narrator say is the kind of person constituting the majority of the passengers?

2. What phrase does Mahmoud think to himself over and over once he is hit by tear gas at the hands of Hungarian soldiers?

3. What is eventually the only part of Isabel's family's boat that remains unsplintered?

4. As the passengers are chanting in desperation, who does Josef see lingering in the doorway and smiling?

5. Who takes charge of performing the memorial service for Ivan before his body must be buried at sea?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Mahmoud and his family reach the Serbian border on their journey fleeing Syria?

2. Whenever Mahmoud or his father wonder where Mahmoud's mother is, where do they inevitably find her and what is she doing?

3. What is Josef's mother's plan for procuring a sleeping potion to help calm her husband Aaron down?

4. What reaction do the other passengers of the MS St. Louis have to Renata and Evelyne being allowed to leave the ship to join their father?

5. What shocking detail does Mahmoud's father reveal to his family once they have been thrown into the water by their dinghy's destruction on the rocks?

6. What happens to Mahmoud's family on the way from Belgrade to the Hungarian border?

7. How are the roles of father and son reversed within the scene when Schiendick leaves Josef and his family alone in their cabin after tormenting them?

8. For what reason does Dr. Aber, the father of Renata and Evelyne, tell the girls to disembark from the ship without bringing any of their belongings?

9. For what reasons does Lito take on the role of leading Ivan's funeral ceremony?

10. What about Waleed's reaction to being held at gunpoint worries Mahmoud about his brother even more than before?

(see the answer keys)

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