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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 does Virgil’s father plant?

2. What does Saw Young feel a part of?

3. What does Nora use to allow Mr. Myles to plant?

4. What does the program Maricela is in help with?

5. What does the garden remind Amir of?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain why Curtis and Lateesha originally broke up.

2. What causes Sae Young to feel a part of the community again?

3. Why does everyone in the garden want to help the girls in the chapter “Maricela”?

4. Explain what Curtis does to thwart off the thieves.

5. What brings Sae Young back out into the world, and why?

6. What is the point of the program for teen mothers?

7. What is Nora’s relationship with Mr. Myles?

8. Why does Maricela resent being pregnant?

9. How does Amir compare the U.S. to India?

10. Describe Sam’s contest, and the winning idea.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the importance of Kim in the novel? She is present in the opening of the novel as the pioneer of the garden, and she is the first at the end of the novel to go back and begin planting in the spring. She is also mentioned in Wendell’s chapter as the child who gave him hope. What do you think the significance of this is?

Essay Topic 2

Throughout the novel, the characters mention fighting a number of stereotypes. Choose three characters from the book, and explain how their lives have been impacted by the stereotypes either about them, held by others, or held by them about others. How do these stereotypes damage their relationships with others? What, if anything, changes them in the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Sam mentions the garden as a paradise, and compares it to Eden. Wendell points out a biblical verse “A child shall lead them.” Sam notes that the garden is a reflection of society. If this is the case, compare and contrast the society depicted by those in the beginning of the novel with the society depicted by those at the end of the novel. Do you think the garden was the only thing responsible for the change? Why or why not? How did Leona, Sam, Nora, Sae Young, and the other characters all help to make the community a better place?

(see the answer keys)

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