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. When Josef's ship's engines roar to life for the first time since arriving in a Cuban harbor, where do the passengers believe the ship will be going next?
(a) Cypress.
(b) Germany.
(c) Poland.
(d) Lesbos.

2. What kind of engine is powering Isabel's boat?
(a) A truck engine.
(b) A motorcycle engine.
(c) A car engine.
(d) A lawnmower engine.

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

4. What does Mami say it is time for, once she puts a stop to the brewing argument on the boat?
(a) A truce.
(b) A water break.
(c) Praying.
(d) Paddling.

5. When Isabel and her family finally reach land and believe they have reached Florida, where have they landed instead?
(a) Turks and Caicos.
(b) The Bahamas.
(c) Puerto Rico.
(d) The Dominican Republic.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is NOT listed among the items provided by the tourists who help Isabel and the other passengers?

2. 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?

3. How many refugees are expected to board the inflatable rubber dinghy used by the smugglers hired by Mahmoud's father?

4. When Josef's father Aaron barricades the door of the family's cabin, what is Josef's mother's plan to calm him?

5. What item do Isabel and Amara work together to break away from the boat so they can throw it overboard and reduce the rapidity of the capsizing process?

Short Essay Questions

1. What reason is given for why Isabel has never been to church?

2. For what purpose does Josef leave his father Aaron alone in the family's cabin when his mother is asleep?

3. What details does Isabel remember about her grandmother Lita's death?

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

5. What change occurs in Josef's mother's personality once the MS St. Louis leaves Cuba?

6. 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?

7. How does Mahmoud save his infant sister Hana from drowning after the family's dinghy bursts upon the rocks?

8. 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?

9. 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?

10. Though the narrator states that a few of the refugees Mahmoud sees when boarding the dinghy have backpacks or plastic bags, how are most of the refugees carrying their belongings?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,196 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample