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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In what season did Hyeonseo and her family move to the riverfront house in Hyesan?
(a) Spring.
(b) Winter.
(c) Autumn.
(d) Summer.

2. What was the title of Hyeonseo's favorite song and is also the title of Chapter 10 of her memoir?
(a) Come to Me.
(b) Jailhouse Rock.
(c) Rocky Island.
(d) Gangnam Style.

3. Hyeonseo says that after a young woman does what in North Korean society, it can be hard for her to find a marriage match?
(a) Turns eighteen.
(b) Becomes sexually active.
(c) Dates.
(d) Gets divorced.

4. Whose daughter told Hyeonseo that illegal South Korean pop cassettes could be bought discreetly from certain dealers?
(a) Uncle Opium.
(b) Aunt Pretty.
(c) Anju's magistrate.
(d) Hyesan's chief of police.

5. Hyeonseo's first memory consists of almost dying in what way?
(a) Almost suffocating.
(b) Almost being beaten to death by a soldier.
(c) Almost drowning.
(d) Almost getting hit by a train.

Short Answer Questions

1. How long after Hyeonseo's father disappeared did the family hear that he had been released to a hospital in Hyesan?

2. At what age does Hyeonseo witness her first public execution?

3. What aspect of the songbun system is kept secret from those residing within its levels?

4. What was listed as Hyeonseo's father's cause of death after her mother had bribed the hospital authorities to falsify it?

5. Hyeonseo says that she has learned that people can do without almost anything, but they cannot do without what?

Short Essay Questions

1. How are the themes of money and freedom linked within the scene in which Hyeonseo's mother is caught on the street wearing trousers?

2. How is the theme of appearance versus reality demonstrated within the description of Hyeonseo's mother's behavior once her husband has been detained for ten days?

3. What quality of her mother's personality does Hyeonseo state is an unusual trait for a woman of high songbun?

4. What do the hills surrounding the city of Anju symbolize within the text?

5. What event causes Hyeonseo to change her behavior of listening to South Korean pop with her friends?

6. What does the author claim is ironic about North Korea's beginnings as a communist state?

7. What beliefs about Chinese people does Hyeonseo say are taught to every North Korean child?

8. What does the author say is the reason that "kindness toward strangers is rare in North Korea" (38)?

9. How does Hyeonseo feel about her forced participation in the Socialist Youth League?

10. When Hyeonseo's grandmother tells her the truth about her biological father and stepfather, what is Hyeonseo's response and what does she say that she should have done instead?

(see the answer keys)

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