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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. Who frightens Wendell?

2. What does Sam grow?

3. Who cleans out the lot at the beginning of the chapter “Sam”?

4. What was yesterday, for Kim?

5. What type of neighborhood is Ana’s?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the problem with water in the lot, and how does Sam deal with it?

2. Why do you think Wendell becomes attached to the bean plants, as Ana did?

3. How does Leona finally convince the city officials to meet with her?

4. Why does Leona decide she needs to do something about the lot?

5. What were Leona’s grandmother’s experiences with doctors?

6. What are Leona’s experiences with calling the city?

7. Why does Ana describe her neighborhood in terms of the cultures within it?

8. At the end of this chapter “Sam,” why does Sam claim the garden is a reflection of Cleveland?

9. Why does Gonzalo end up having to “babysit” his uncle?

10. What is the “Garcia Equation”?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What do you think the author was trying to get across with this novel? What was the primary theme? Was the author successful? How did the book make you feel? Did the author convince you of his primary point in writing the novel? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Maricela’s story is a very powerful one in the novel. Describe Maricela’s life at the beginning of the novel. Why does she feel so persecuted? What does she hope for? Who changes this, and why? How does the garden help her to begin to accept her state, and her future?

Essay Topic 3

Going back through the characters, list the cultural heritage each comes from. How diverse is this neighborhood? Would the garden have been as amazing had the neighborhood been predominately white or Hispanic? Why or why not? How did the activities in the garden go from what Sam noted, a mirror of a segregated society, to what Amir noted, as a harvest feast among a cultural melting pot?

(see the answer keys)

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