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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. The Guatemalan girls in Luiselli's depiction of their interview are what ages?

2. Whom does Luiselli assert knows the answer to the question inquiring why people migrate from their home countries to the United States?

3. The author asserts that "the United States is a country full of" (95) what?

4. From what country had Manu fled, ending up in the screening room with Luiselli?

5. The words migrants learn as they are on their way to the United States contain the sentiment that to leave is to do what a little?

Short Essay Questions

1. When the Spanish Conversation class led by Luiselli renounces their name, what do they call the class instead and why is their choice significant?

2. What solidified belief does Luiselli carry about the child refugees, based on her experiences screening such children at The Door?

3. In which states have the highest numbers of children been released to sponsors since the declaration of the refugee crisis?

4. What sacrifices does Luiselli name as ones immigrants are willing to make in order to stay in the United States?

5. What does Luiselli mean when she describes herself as a "bridge between the children and the court system"? (67)

6. In what way did Luiselli make the most of her ability to facilitate conversation within her "first semester of teaching at Hofstra University"? (91)

7. Describe Luiselli's employment of imagery in order to get across what it feels like for immigrants once they have been in the United States for a sustained period of time.

8. Describe an instance when Luiselli uses a simile to describe the border between the United States and Mexico.

9. How does Luiselli use the motif of sound to make a particular point within Part III: Home?

10. How does Luiselli get across the way in which the dangerous trek to the United States is only the beginning of a child refugee's struggles?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the significance of three of the text's main symbols. How do these symbols connect to the overall themes within the essay?

Essay Topic 2

How does the author's use of the first and second person point of view serve her purposes over the course of the essay? Discuss how Valeria Luiselli’s choice of point of view helps to advance her treatment of at least three particular themes within the text.

Essay Topic 3

Examine Valeria Luiselli’s use of characterization methods to portray her own family members. What effect do these characterization methods have on the essay's inherent themes and messages?

(see the answer keys)

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