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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did the person whose place Makina’s brother is taking ask him?
(a) Why he would agree to such a thing.
(b) How much money he needed.
(c) Whether he was scared.
(d) What his hometown was like.

2. What is Makina’s brother told he will be doing, by taking this job?
(a) Earning his keep.
(b) Saving a family.
(c) Assuring his immortality.
(d) Saving his country.

3. How many times does Makina think she has arrived, only to find out that she has to keep going?
(a) Six.
(b) Two.
(c) Eight.
(d) Four.

4. What does Makina say people are doing when they combine languages?
(a) Returning to their roots.
(b) Making the world happen anew.
(c) Re-domesticating human experience.
(d) Marrying cultures.

5. What does Makina’s brother’s second note say?
(a) "I’m going to send money with my next letter."
(b) "I’m fine, I have a job."
(c) "I’m in danger, help."
(d) "Send money so I can come home."

6. What happens when Makina finally arrives at the correct street?
(a) No one is there.
(b) There is no such place.
(c) The people there shrug.
(d) She meets her brother.

7. Why had this person joined the army?
(a) In a drunken fit.
(b) On a dare.
(c) On an unexplained impulse.
(d) In a display of masculinity.

8. How does Makina’s brother answer when she asks if he got hurt?
(a) He says that he was wounded badly and has never healed.
(b) He says that he was wounded once and recovered.
(c) He says that he was only ever grazed lightly by shrapnel or bullets.
(d) He says that he did not get a scratch.

9. What is the first thing Makina thinks when she sees her brother?
(a) That this person looks a lot like her brother.
(b) That her brother looks so grown up in uniform.
(c) That her brother should come home with her.
(d) That her brother looks tired.

10. What does Makina’s brother say his experience of war mostly consisted of?
(a) Long periods of boredom.
(b) Sustained periods of terror.
(c) A lot of pointless drilling.
(d) Long weeks of technical training.

11. What language is the Latin tongue, in Makina’s view?
(a) English.
(b) Mayan.
(c) Incan.
(d) Spanish.

12. What did the family expect Makina’s brother to do for them?
(a) Fight in a foreign war.
(b) Serve out a year’s enlistment.
(c) Learn to fly helicopters.
(d) Die in battle.

13. Which of the four places with the same name does Makina want?
(a) The one with the tower.
(b) The one with the park.
(c) The one with the bridge.
(d) The one with the canal.

14. What does the narrator say is brimming in the immigrants’ language?
(a) Grief.
(b) Powerlessness.
(c) Nostalgia.
(d) Patience.

15. What does Makina’s brother say typically initiated periods of activity for him and his fellow soldiers?
(a) One of his homeys would be shot.
(b) There was no regularity to the periods of activity.
(c) A bomb would be thrown into the compound.
(d) A higher-up would decide it was time for a campaign.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Makina not want to call the cops for help?

2. What is the advantage of a polyglot language, in Makina’s eyes?

3. What does the light look like in the sky when Makina arrives at the address?

4. How does Makina characterize the shift in the people’s language in America?

5. What is the first soldier Makina meets doing when she asks for her brother?

(see the answer keys)

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