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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. To what location does Luiselli compare when describing how an immigrant begins to think of his or her home country after a long time living in the United States?

2. What right does Luiselli say "United States law guarantees" for all children, "no matter their nationality or immigrant status" (92)?

3. What is Luiselli's reply when Manu asks her where she is from during the interview?

4. What is the ultimate result of Manu's encounter with the gang who waits outside of his school one day?

5. When the Luiselli's students present their plan outlining the rest of the semester, how do they want to spend the remaining class time?

Short Essay Questions

1. What kinds of professionals did Luiselli bring in to speak to her Advanced Conversation class?

2. 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?

3. Discuss an instance in Part III: Home when Luiselli uses a simile to indicate powerlessness.

4. How does the theme of uncertainty arise at the end of Part III: Home?

5. What were three things Alina reported being told when a school denied entry to Manu during her search?

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

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

9. In what way does Luiselli depict speaking about trauma as an effective method of processing it?

10. How does the theme of sacrifice arise within the final passages of Part IV: Community?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the symbolism and purpose of the three photographs included subsequent to the essay's coda?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the author's use of a parallel personal story about her family's road trip to accompany her focus on the questionnaire. What themes are demonstrated in the author’s use of this parallel narrative and what rhetorical devices does she use to make these connections?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the significance of the coda included at the end of Valeria Luiselli’s essay.

(see the answer keys)

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