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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 1992, the North Korean government launched a widely publicized campaign called "Let us eat" (55), how many meals per day?
(a) Six.
(b) Two.
(c) One.
(d) Three.

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

3. What unconventional and technically illegal hairstyle did Hyeonseo wear while attending school in Hyesan?
(a) A perm.
(b) A bob.
(c) A fringe.
(d) A mohawk.

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

5. What does Hyeonseo say is the only "permitted outlet for spiritual fervor" (41) in North Korea?
(a) The business trade.
(b) One Catholic mass per year.
(c) Kim worship.
(d) Self-criticism sessions.

Short Answer Questions

1. When the Socialist Youth League performed work in the summer, they dug tunnels around Hyeonseo's school. What type of work did they engage in during the other three seasons that year?

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

3. When Hyeonseo's father rushes back into the burning house, what items does he emerge from the house carrying?

4. What example is given of a person who would inhabit the lowest level of songbun?

5. What percentage of North Korea's population consistently falls within the Hostile category of the songbun caste system?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is shown about Hyeonseo's maternal grandmother's character within the description of her reaction to Hyeonseo's mother's divorce and child borne of the marriage?

2. How does Hyeonseo interpret the fortune-teller's announcement that Hyeonseo will have "a future connected with music" and will "eat foreign rice" (43)?

3. What reason does the author provide for her claim that her family's new home in Hyesan was perfect for her "mother's illicit enterprises" (57)?

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

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

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

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

8. What is ironic about the North Korean government's use of the term "people's trial" (27)?

9. What major world event does Hyeonseo say she and other North Koreans were completely ignorant of in the 1990s?

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

(see the answer keys)

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