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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. As Rodriguez moves into college and graduate school, how does his relationship with his parents change?
(a) They ask him a lot more questions about his studies.
(b) They argue a lot.
(c) They start talking again.
(d) They have even less to say to each other.

2. What does Rodriguez say about how the people around him now say his name?
(a) They say his name just like everyone else's name.
(b) They mispronounce it.
(c) They pronounce it differently than his Spanish-speaking family.
(d) They say it as if they are impressed to know him.

3. What does Rodriguez start to believe about intimate conversations?
(a) He will never be able to have them with his family because of the language barrier.
(b) He can have them with his family in spite of the language barrier.
(c) Intimate conversations are hard to have in the "public" language.
(d) He can no longer have an intimate conversation in Spanish.

4. Is Rodriguez's education affected by his religion? If so, how?
(a) No, because his education is not a religious education.
(b) Yes, because he spends his whole day praying and does not study.
(c) Yes, because he only studies religious material.
(d) Yes, because his education is scheduled around religious services.

5. What is Rodriguez told when he asks questions about the church?
(a) Asking questions is a good thing to do.
(b) Only ask questions of the priests and nuns.
(c) God will answer all your questions.
(d) Do not ask questions; just memorize the right answers.

6. Where does Rodriguez believe Spanish should be spoken?
(a) Everywhere.
(b) In private, with family or close friends.
(c) In public.
(d) In the classroom.

7. In The Achievement of Desire, Chapter 4, how does Rodriguez describe his relationship with his parents?
(a) They are "strangers and relatives."
(b) They are "the old way and the new way."
(c) They are "warm but uncomfortable."
(d) They are "culturally separated."

8. What religion does Rodriguez's family practice?
(a) Judaism.
(b) Catholicism.
(c) Buddhism.
(d) Christianity.

9. What is Rodriguez told about reading the Bible?
(a) Do not read it at all.
(b) Read it in the classroom with someone to guide him.
(c) Read it at mass on Sunday.
(d) Read it every day.

10. When Rodriguez hears about religious practices that are different from his own, what does he think of them?
(a) He likes them better than his own practices.
(b) He is shocked and thinks they are wrong.
(c) He is curious about them.
(d) He sees how similar they are to his own practices.

11. What does Rodriguez say is the real reason for his success?
(a) Working very hard.
(b) Remembering what his life was like before he was educated.
(c) Reading every book he could find.
(d) Kissing up to the teacher.

12. What does Rodriguez start to notice about English?
(a) How much English helps him do better in school.
(b) How much easier it is to say things in English than in Spanish.
(c) Words he understands now that he did not understand before.
(d) Sounds and tones he previously ignored.

13. How does the family's communication change as the children learn more English?
(a) They talk less because it is hard for the parents to understand their children when they speak English.
(b) They enjoy speaking Spanish together more.
(c) Their mother talks to them a lot, but their father never speaks to them.
(d) Their mother and father speak to them, but they no longer talk to their grandmother.

14. What does Rodriguez say education does to the scholarship boy?
(a) It teaches him to stand up for himself.
(b) It teaches him to be less unique and more like other people.
(c) It teaches him to fight for justice.
(d) It teaches him to look down on people who are not educated.

15. Does Rodriguez believe that not speaking English well has consequences for his parents?
(a) No, he says they did all right in spite of the language problems.
(b) Yes, because they could not talk to the doctor if they were sick.
(c) Yes, he thinks they got cheated out of money because of it.
(d) No, because they always stayed in places where the other people spoke Spanish, too.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does Rodriguez say surrounds him now?

2. Rodriguez has acknowledged that his relationship with his family changed as he became more educated. What does he say about how that affected his success?

3. Did Rodriguez's brother and sister tell him what to expect at school?

4. How does Rodriguez feel about his parents' English skills?

5. As a child, how does Rodriguez feel about speaking English?

(see the answer keys)

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