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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. Which direction does Makina have to go, to get to the first suggested place?

2. How many times does Makina think she has arrived, only to find out that she has to keep going?

3. What does Makina hear as soon as she leaves the army base?

4. How does the narrator describe Makina and her brother’s feelings when they walk out of the office?

5. What does Makina’s brother say made him confident about taking this job?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What does Makina learn about her brother from the old woman?

4. How does Makina find the boy from the bus?

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

6. How does Makina’s brother describe his experience of war?

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

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

9. What drives Makina to take shelter in an ATM booth?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Identify the most important plot points in Signs Preceding the End of the World. What is at stake in each of these moments? What possibilities do these moments present, and how are those possibilities channeled into specific actions or events? How does the plot chart its course among other alternative or possible plots?

Essay Topic 2

Assess the nature and quality of Makina’s relationships with boys in Signs Preceding the End of the World. Who does she have relations with, and what are the assumptions that guide those relationships? Are all of her relationships similar, or are there qualitative differences between her relationships? What do her relationships with boys tell us about her character?

Essay Topic 3

Evaluate your own reading of Signs Preceding the End of the World—did you resist it, or were you compelled by the story? What does your reading tell you about yourself and your interests? Use specific examples from the book to describe yourself as a reader.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 872 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample