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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. As which of the following does Leigh gloss “ni hao” in the novel?

2. Which of the following epithets does Leigh report being subjected to along with Axel?

3. As which of the following does Leigh gloss “yao” in the novel?

4. Which of the following smells does Leigh note on Alex?

5. Which of the following words does Leigh recognize as Brian and Waipo talk after they arrive in Taipei from the United States?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Leigh relate her parents’ meeting to the Renards?

2. How is the Buddhist temple where Dorothy spent the most time in Taiwan described when Leigh approaches it?

3. How does Leigh describe Waigong upon meeting him?

4. What does Leigh advance as a working definition of family?

5. What is Leigh’s reaction to meeting Caro’s family?

6. How does Leigh imagine Axel composing in response to the park she visits with Waipo on her first full day in Taipei?

7. What reasons does Leigh give for her quickly taking a liking to Caro?

8. Why does Brian note Leigh should not have received the box she reports receiving from the bird Dorothy became?

9. How does Leigh recognize that the first memory she encounters in the first “Smoke & Memories” chapter is her mother’s?

10. What present does Axel give Leigh for her fourteenth birthday?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Leigh notes that “It calms me to see everything more clearly, to note the sharp corners of the piano bench, the straightness of the curtains draping down against the window” (36)? Why might Leigh take comfort from straight, sharp edges? What in the text and in experience suggests that reason? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

Leigh repeatedly calls attention to cracks in reality that appear only in brief flashes. Explicate the imagery of those cracks.

Essay Topic 3

Leigh notes that the first time she sees Brian cry since Dorothy’s funeral is in her grandparents’ home (57). What significance does it have that this is the case, and how is that significance put across by the novel and its contexts?

(see the answer keys)

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