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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Thi and her siblings go to bed at what time every night while under the care of Bo?
(a) Midnight.
(b) Nine o'clock.
(c) Seven o'clock.
(d) They do not have a bedtime.

2. Chapter 3 begins in what location?
(a) Berkeley.
(b) Vietnam.
(c) Peru.
(d) Miami.

3. How many years after Ma's suicide attempt does she bring up the subject with Thi for the first time?
(a) 15.
(b) 20.
(c) 5.
(d) 30.

4. Bui tells Nguyen that she had gotten good grades and taken what other action in order to get scholarships?
(a) Been the valedictorian of her class.
(b) Performed hundreds of hours of community service.
(c) Run for Class President.
(d) Worked three jobs.

5. Who is the oldest of Bui's sisters?
(a) Bo.
(b) Thanh.
(c) Lan.
(d) Bich.

6. In what California city was the high school Bui helped to open?
(a) Los Angeles.
(b) Sacramento.
(c) Oakland.
(d) San Francisco.

7. When the nurse brings in a tray of surgical instruments, Bui feels her heart take what action?
(a) Skip a beat.
(b) Go black.
(c) Drop.
(d) Move into her throat.

8. What two armies forced the Vietnamese people to uproot their rice in order to plant jute?
(a) Korean and Indonesian.
(b) Chinese and Japanese.
(c) French and Japanese.
(d) Chinese and Korean.

9. In what year did Japan send troops to "block Chinese supply routes" (102)?
(a) 1950.
(b) 1942.
(c) 1940.
(d) 1923.

10. Ma's first job in America requires putting what objects together?
(a) Boxes.
(b) Circuit boards.
(c) Microchips.
(d) Adoptive families.

11. What happened during the very last time Bo ever saw his mother?
(a) Bo's father beat up his mother and threw her out.
(b) Bo's mother crossed the border into China.
(c) Bo's mother kissed him goodbye and told him to be good.
(d) Bo's grandfather beat up Bo's grandmother.

12. In the preface of The Best We Could Do, Bui states that the "seeds of this book were planted" in what year?
(a) 2002.
(b) 2006.
(c) 1998.
(d) 1996.

13. In what location does Tam hide when things are tense in the house?
(a) The treehouse.
(b) The closet.
(c) The attic.
(d) The cellar.

14. Thi states that her parents had escaped from Vietnam by using what form of transport?
(a) A train.
(b) A plane.
(c) A bus.
(d) A boat.

15. When Bui feels a particular emotion after the birth of her son, a "wave of" (22) what emotion for Ma washes over her?
(a) Nostalgia.
(b) Empathy.
(c) Sadness.
(d) Anger.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what year did Japan send troops to occupy northern French Indochina?

2. Bo recalls how in the midst of starvation, his mother had sometimes been able to buy a small piece of what type of meat to share only with Bo?

3. Bo says that when he was how old, his father had fallen in love with a neighbor?

4. Thi witnesses which person get spat on as he is called a racial slur?

5. Viet Thanh Nguyen describes Vietnamese refugees in what California city in the 1980s?

(see the answer keys)

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