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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Rodriguez told when he asks questions about the church?

2. What does Rodriguez wonder about his parents and his education?

3. Rodriguez describes events that happened how many years ago?

4. In The Achievement of Desire, Chapter 4, how does Rodriguez describe his relationship with his parents?

5. What did Rodriguez learn about other religions beside his own?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the Rodriguez family tease Richard? What do they call him?

2. How does Rodriguez feel as his education comes to an end?

3. Why is Rodriguez writing this book? Identify two reasons.

4. What is special or different about the school Rodriguez attends? How does that affect him later in life?

5. What does Rodriguez say about his experience of growing up Catholic?

6. How does Rodriguez feel about his education?

7. How does Rodriguez describe himself as a student?

8. How does Rodriguez view his parents' use of English?

9. How does Rodriguez describe each language (Spanish and English) differently?

10. What do other people think of the "scholarship boy"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Rodriguez clearly sees books as something powerful and potentially dangerous. Early on in the book, Rodriguez describes himself as being afraid to learn to read because he was aware of the power of books. Later, he describes his mother asking him what was in all those books and why he needed to read all of them. At the end of the book, he describes his nephew, who is reading, as someone who may cause trouble.

Part One: What has happened in his life to lead him to that conclusion? Give specific examples.

Part Two: Do you think other people in the book would agree with his conclusion? Why or why not? Give specific examples.

Essay Topic 2

Rodriguez identifies with a student description in a textbook, the "scholarship boy." He feels that is a good representation of how he was as a student.

Part One: Describe the scholarship boy. Identify how that type of student is seen by the teacher, by fellow classmates, and how he sees himself. Identify why Rodriguez related to that description, and use specific examples to support your answer.

Part Two: Write a brief description of the kind of student you are. Identify how that type of student is seen by the teacher, by fellow classmates, and how he/she sees himself/herself. Compare and contrast your description with that of the scholarship boy.

Essay Topic 3

Many books written by minority authors identify the discrimination, challenges, and disadvantages faced by people of that minority group or culture. Rodriguez does acknowledge some of those things, but for the most part, his story is remarkably positive about ethnicity. In some cases, he actually identifies his ethnicity as a benefit or an advantage.

Part One: Identify at least two places in the book where Rodriguez identifies some element of his ethnicity as an advantage rather than a disadvantage.

Part Two: As a reader, what do you think about his handling of the ethnicity issue? Is he making things sound better than they really are? Do you think other writers might make things sound worse than they really are?

Part Three: Which approach would you rather read? Do you think your opinion has anything to do with your ethnicity or your life experience?

(see the answer keys)

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