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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. What does Captain Schroeder say had happened when he sought to meet with President Bru?
(a) He says that the president had been assassinated two days before his visit.
(b) He says that the president is sympathetic but his hands are tied.
(c) He says the president would not meet with him.
(d) He says that the president had been unsympathetic to the refugees' plights.

2. Who rescues Josef's father Aaron from the sea after Aaron jumps overboard?
(a) Josef.
(b) A Puerto Rican doctor.
(c) A Cuban policeman.
(d) Ruthie.

3. Who sews Ruthie's stuffed bunny back together before she can see it headless?
(a) Captain Schroeder.
(b) Josef.
(c) Josef's mother.
(d) Otto Scheindick.

4. When Josef's father Aaron barricades the door of the family's cabin, what is Josef's mother's plan to calm him?
(a) She will leave him alone for an hour so he can soothe himself.
(b) She will ask the ship's psychiatrist to visit him.
(c) She will restrain him on the cabin bed.
(d) She will visit the doctor and procure a tranquilizer for him.

5. Just before Mahmoud tumbles from the boat into the sea, someone at the front of the dinghy yells that he sees what objects?
(a) Rescue boats.
(b) Lightning strikes.
(c) Rocks.
(d) Lighthouses.

Short Answer Questions

1. The narrator states that Isabel had been so close to Ivan that he felt to her more like a what than like a best friend?

2. How long does it take Josef's ship to sail from Havana to within viewing distance of Miami?

3. What does Ivan's mother Señora Castillo do just before Ivan's body is buried at sea?

4. When Captain Schroeder assures the passengers of Josef's ship that they will not return to Germany, what other plan does he say he will be enacting?

5. Who appears next to Josef's ship and manages to convince authorities to release his two daughters from the ship?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Josef's mother's plan for getting a sleeping potion for her husband Aaron go awry?

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

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

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

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

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

8. 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?

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

10. When Isabel realizes that each part of the journey has been like the verse of a song, what results does she come up with when thinking of the various verses the song would include?

(see the answer keys)

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