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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 amazes a student about the bathrooms at the Century City Marriott?

2. What does a student remember after reading about women being molested in Bosnia?

3. Why is Gruwell frustrated at the beginning of Spring, 1995 semester?

4. Why can most of the class relate to the main character in the book Durango Street?

5. Why are the diaries written anonymously?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is the summer before the sophomore year the worst ever for one student?

2. Why does one student decide she is not as in love with her boyfriend as she thought she was?

3. What do the students do when they play the peanut game?

4. As described in Chapter 1, why does a student get a gun to protect him/herself?

5. Why is a student excited to meet a Japanese man who was in an internment camp during World War I?

6. Because of the Read-a-Thon for Tolerance, why is Zlata invited to speak to the class?

7. Why does Renee Firestone's story affect one student?

8. Why does a student transfer from the Distinguished Scholars program to Gruwell's class?

9. Why is Gruwell frustrated at the beginning of the semester in the spring of 1995?

10. In Diary Two, why does a student wonder why he is in Gruwell's English class?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The students study Ralph Waldo Emerson when learning about self-reliance. What does this quote by Emerson mean: "Who so should be a man, must be a nonconformist"? How does the quote relate to self-reliance? From their diary entries, list examples of how the students are becoming more self-reliant. How is Gruwell helping the students become more self-reliant? How are the circumstances in their daily lives making the students more self-reliant?

Essay Topic 2

During the spring semester of 1996, Tommy makes a statement: "They say America is the 'Land of the Free and home of the Brave,' but what's so free about a land where people get killed?" What does Tommy mean by this statement? What examples does he give to demonstrate what he means by this statement? Why does Tommy make this statement? What is he comparing when he makes this statement?

Essay Topic 3

What comparisons can be made between Zlata and the Freedom Writers? How are Zlata and the Freedom Writers subjected to things that can make them victims? Why don't Zlata and the Freedom Writers become victims? How does writing help all of them? Provide examples from the foreword and the book.

(see the answer keys)

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