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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 insects do Mayako and the other children catch at the Temple?

2. Who does Roya tell Sarah had been shot in 1999 in the same square in which the rally will take place?

3. What did Mayayako’s father do after fighting in China, which she does not tell Yumiko?

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

5. What was the name of Parvin’s radio show in America?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How crowded is the boat as described on p. 247 of “The Boat”?

3. Describe some of the sensory details in the first lines of “The Boat” when Mai is on the boat during the storm.

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

5. What are some of the first images Sarah sees in the terminal at the start of “Tehran Calling”?

6. What happens to Mai’s father five years after coming home from fighting the Communists?

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

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

9. What does Sarah thinks when she watches the call to prayer from the window of her room at Parvin’s?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay analyzing Henry’s physical and emotional changes over the course of “Meeting Elise.”

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay analyzing Mai and Quyen’s relationship in “The Boat.” What are the circumstances under which they met? What is their connection? In what ways does this connection change over the course of the story?

Essay Topic 3

The ocean is a symbol in several of the stories in Nam Le’s The Boat. Choose two or more stories that include the ocean as symbol and write an essay analyzing the roles and symbolic significance of the ocean.

(see the answer keys)

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