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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 Nora bring for Mr. Myles to plant?

2. What happens to his shovel when Virgil tries to dig?

3. What does Virgil’s father do in America?

4. Why does Royce sleep in the garden?

5. Where is Amir from?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe what Nora does to allow Mr. Myles to garden.

2. Explain why Curtis and Lateesha originally broke up.

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

4. What is Curtis trying to show through the growth of the tomatoes?

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

6. What happens to the lettuce in the chapter “Virgil”?

7. Explain what happens during the rainstorm.

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

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

10. What does Amir learn about his misconceptions of cultures?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In several chapters in the novel, characters go from being unable to function in society, to being a vital part of a thriving garden. How did this happen for Sae Young, Nora’s client, and Tio Juan? Why did the garden help them? How did it allow them a chance to become something they otherwise could not have been?

Essay Topic 2

Sae Young has had a very difficult life, as has Wendell. Compare the lives of these two characters, and their reactions to those lives. How do their very difference experiences lead them to the same place? What does this say about human tragedy, and our responses to such tragedies?

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)

This section contains 751 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample