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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. What group does Mayako’s sister allow her to join, which they keep a secret from their mother?

2. What did Parvin decide the day her best friend’s apartment building was bombed?

3. What are all the women on the plane wearing at the beginning of “Tehran Calling”?

4. How many days worth of water does Anh Phuoc tell Mai and Quyen they have on the boat when he gives water to Truong in the pilothouse?

5. What does Mahmoud say Parvin was encouraging people in Iran to do from her radio station in America?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Sarah learn about why Parvin came to Iran after she tells Mahmoud that she came to Iran to escape a man?

2. What games do the children play when they play outside together, which leaves some of them weeping?

3. Where does Mai’s mother send her the day after visiting her father in the hospital?

4. Describe the play Parvin had seen when Sarah had arrived in Iran.

5. Who is Anh Phuoc and what does he do on the boat?

6. What are the issues Parvin expresses to Sarah that she has with her activist group and their constant meetings?

7. After Mai emerges from her fever and two-day sleep, what does she notice about Truong?

8. What does Quyen tell Mai about where her husband is?

9. Where is Mayako at the beginning of “Hirsoshima” and what is she doing with the other girls per Mrs. Sasaki’s orders?

10. What does Sarah learn about Parvin’s past life in Iran before leaving for Europe?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose two stories from The Boat and write an essay analyzing the theme of loneliness in the text.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay analyzing Nam Le’s choice to tell the story from a particular point of view in any one of the stories in The Boat. Discuss how this point-of-view impacts the reader’s experience. Using direct examples from the text, explain why this point-of-view is or is not an effective choice.

Essay Topic 3

Head injuries are a recurring symbol in Nam Le’s The Boat, for example, Jamie in “HalfLead Bay” and the man in the mourning procession in “Tehran Calling.” Choose one example of a head wound from a story in the Boat an analyze how it develops the overall theme of the story.

(see the answer keys)

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