View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. To what location does a taxi driver offer to drive Mahmoud and his family if they give him 24,000 Syrian pounds?
(a) Macedonia.
(b) Serbia.
(c) Lesbos.
(d) Crete.

2. When Mahmoud and his family wait at the border between Greece and Macedonia, what is NOT one way Mahmoud feels?
(a) Unwanted.
(b) Dirty.
(c) Invisible.
(d) Illegal.

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

4. In the moments after Isabel and the other passengers see Miami, what event happens?
(a) Their boat starts sinking.
(b) Luis jumps off the boat and starts to swim.
(c) They bury Ivan at sea.
(d) Their boat motor dies.

5. What is the reason that Mahmoud's family's boat begins to fill with water on their journey to the island?
(a) The boat develops a hole from an unknown cause.
(b) The boat is struck by another boat.
(c) The boat's tar patch begins to fail.
(d) It begins to rain.

Short Answer Questions

1. While trying not to look at Ivan's lifeless body, Isabel thinks about the fact that who has "Ivan's blood all over him" (224)?

2. Who sews Ruthie's stuffed bunny back together before she can see it headless?

3. Where does the Greek Coast Guard take Mahmoud and the other refugees at dawn once the boat is full of people?

4. When the head of the ship's committee tells the passengers that the ship will be heading back to Europe, what are the two phrases chanted by the passengers?

5. Why is Belgrade, Serbia an unsafe place for Mahmoud and his family?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. What plans for his life in Florida does Señor Castillo reveal to the remaining passengers in the boat after Ivan's death?

3. 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?

4. What occurs when Isabel and her family realize they have landed on the Bahamas?

5. What does Isabel mean when she thinks that "Fidel Castro has Ivan's blood all over him" (224)?

6. On the second day of Isabel's journey, it is said that it seems to Isabel and Ivan that everyone has a job but the two of them. What jobs are being handled by the others?

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

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

9. What is the reason given for the firemen on the ship engaging in bad behavior while the ship is docked in Cuba and what are they said to be doing?

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,215 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample