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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. Who was the "bad-toothed scrapper" (85) that joined Mendez on the walk through the Devil's Highway?

2. What was unfamiliar about the place names Jesus encountered in Sonoita?

3. Which mountain range did Mendez repeatedly attempt to climb, without success?

4. What kinds of maps did the Coyotes have?

5. According to the notes of U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton, what did the walkers consume to survive after they were abandoned by the Coyotes?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens to the expedition led by Santos?

2. How does Urrea explain the low quality of budget border motels?

3. Why did the Border Patrol agents fail to recognize Mendez?

4. What geographical feature did Mendez get lost in, as if it were a maze?

5. What did the walkers discuss with their Coyotes on the morning of May 21?

6. What happened to the Coyotes after they abandoned the walkers?

7. What caused the group to break apart after they pressed on without Mendez?

8. What disrupted the walkers' plans at Bluebird Pass?

9. How did getting lost affect the walkers' opinion of the human smugglers?

10. Why were officials skeptical when Mendez claimed that he planned to return for the walkers?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The struggle of Reymundos Sr. and Jr. is given significant prominence in The Devil's Highway compared to many of the other walkers, both living and dead. Write an essay exploring how these individuals are characterized and the tone that Urrea achieves when describing them. Conclude by explaining how this characterization and tone influence the reader's perceptions of the walkers as a group.

Essay Topic 2

Though The Devil's Highway is a non-fiction book, in incorporates many poeticized and fictionalized passages. Choose one or more passages from the book incorporating a poetic or literary technique such as stanzas, dialogue, metaphor, personification, symbolism, or character development. Explain how the technique is used in the passage, both justifying your choice as an example of the technique specified and analyzing the effect the technique's usage has on the reader. Conclude by explaining how the use of this technique impacts the book's truthfulness.

Essay Topic 3

Economic forces drive and support many of the events described over the course of the Devil's Highway and Urrea goes into some detail describing them. Write a paper analyzing Urrea's presentation of the significance of these forces. Use details from the text to describe the economic influences at play, interpret Urrea's analysis, and respond with your own critique or elaboration upon Urrea's thinking.

(see the answer keys)

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