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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What simile does Hyeonseo use to describe the fireball emanating from her childhood home?
(a) Like a water lily.
(b) Like a snapdragon.
(c) Like a chrysanthemum.
(d) Like a peony.

2. Why does Hyeonseo not start kindergarten in Hyesan as she had thought she would?
(a) Her mother's job is transferred to a new city.
(b) The family's house burns down and they are relocated to a new city.
(c) Her father's job is transferred to a new city.
(d) Her mother decides to teach her at home.

3. Why does Hyeonseo's mother carry a candle to the door when meeting Hyeonseo's future father and her future husband for the second time?
(a) Because the power in the country is out.
(b) Because she thinks it will lend a romantic air to their reunion.
(c) Because the power in the city is out.
(d) Because her father does not permit her to waste money on electricity at night.

4. What does seo mean in Korean?
(a) Good fortune.
(b) Health.
(c) Smile.
(d) Wealth.

5. What level of the caste system is made up of 10-15% of the North Korean population?
(a) Elite.
(b) Wavering.
(c) Kim family employees.
(d) Royal.

6. The author states that while schooling in North Korea is technically free, what other condition is true?
(a) Parents are constantly being assigned quotas for donations of goods.
(b) Parents are required to pay the teachers' salaries.
(c) The Great Leader often demands education taxes.
(d) Education stops after the age of 8.

7. How old is Hyeonseo when the family's home catches on fire?
(a) 9.
(b) 13.
(c) 17.
(d) 24.

8. Even though it meant shopping for food every day, for what reason did Hyeonseo's mother eschew the latest trend of buying a refrigerator from China?
(a) There are too many blackouts.
(b) She did not know how to hide it from the police.
(c) She did not have enough money.
(d) She did not want to attract attention.

9. What was listed as Hyeonseo's father's cause of death after her mother had bribed the hospital authorities to falsify it?
(a) Heart attack.
(b) Influenza.
(c) Stroke.
(d) Suicide.

10. Hyeonseo says that she has learned that people can do without almost anything, but they cannot do without what?
(a) Shelter.
(b) Food.
(c) Friends.
(d) Family.

11. What location in Hyesan did Hyeonseo name as a "common site for public executions" (73)?
(a) The public square.
(b) The riverbank.
(c) The airport.
(d) The National Museum.

12. What form of currency does Hyeonseo say is required for bribes and for the purchase of black market goods?
(a) Foreign cash.
(b) The Korean won.
(c) Precious metals.
(d) Travelers' checks.

13. Hyeonseo remarks that the family's home by the river in Hyesan was perfect for what?
(a) Learning to ice skate.
(b) Learning to sail.
(c) Her own gardening hobby.
(d) Her mother's illicit enterprises.

14. What was NOT a characteristic of the special class Hyeonseo began taking when she was 15?
(a) The class was for girls only.
(b) The class taught knitting skills.
(c) The class taught housekeeping skills.
(d) There were only three girls in the class.

15. When Hyeonseo heard the news that some local young women had been caught listening to South Korean pop music, what was their allocated punishment?
(a) They are sentenced to a prison camp.
(b) They are executed.
(c) They are forced to move to a different county.
(d) They are exiled from North Korea.

Short Answer Questions

1. Hyeonseo's first memory consists of almost dying in what way?

2. At what age are North Koreans forced to join the Socialist Youth League?

3. Hyeonseo says that she will never be truly free of her country's what, no matter how far she travels?

4. In 1992, the North Korean government launched a widely publicized campaign called "Let us eat" (55), how many meals per day?

5. What is the rough translation of the North Korean ideological term juche?

(see the answer keys)

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