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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 Makina do when she realizes she has made a mistake in recognizing her brother?

2. What happens when Makina finally arrives at the correct street?

3. What does Makina’s brother say typically initiated periods of activity for him and his fellow soldiers?

4. Where do Makina and her brother talk when she first finds him?

5. What does the narrator say is brimming in the immigrants’ language?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Makina think she will do if they tell her bad news?

2. What does Makina find at the address she has been traveling toward?

3. What does Makina learn about the job her brother took?

4. Who is the man who evicts Makina from the ATM booth?

5. What is it about the people she meets in the city that excites Makina?

6. Why does Makina’s brother say he did not return after the land fiasco?

7. Who does Makina meet at the army base before she meets her brother?

8. What happened when Makina’s brother came back from the war?

9. What were the three messages Makina’s brother sent home?

10. How does Makina free herself and the others who have been collected by the cop?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Evaluate the ending of Signs Preceding the End of the World. Does it ring true to you? Does it successfully resolve the problems and tensions that preceded it? What would you change, if anything? What are you left wishing for closure on, if anything?

Essay Topic 2

Evaluate Signs Preceding the End of the World as a bildungsroman, a coming-of-age narrative.

What are the challenges Makina face in rites of passage in this novel? How do they overcome these challenges, and what do they learn at each stage? Are they complete human beings at the end of the novel, or do they die too early to learn all the lessons a person would need to learn?

Essay Topic 3

Analyze the title of Signs Preceding the End of the World as a map to the experiences contained in the book. What is the ‘end of the world,’ in Makina’s experience? What are the ‘signs’ that preceded it? How does the ambiguity or playfulness in the title affect your experience reading the book?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 814 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample