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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. What aspect of Hyeonseo's mother's character does Hyeonseo say is unusual for a woman of high songbun?
(a) Her frequent gambling.
(b) Her kindness to citizens with low songbun.
(c) Her love for fashion.
(d) Her entrepreneurial spirit.

2. What example is given of a person who would inhabit the lowest level of songbun?
(a) A thief.
(b) A political prisoner with no hope of release.
(c) A heretic.
(d) A murderer whose victim is of higher status.

3. For North Korean citizens, joining the Young Pioneer Corps is compulsory in the years between what two ages?
(a) 10-16.
(b) 9-14.
(c) 6-12.
(d) 8-18.

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

5. What did Hyeonseo's mother do immediately upon seeing her husband in the Hyesan hospital?
(a) She faints.
(b) She screams.
(c) She hugs him.
(d) She sobs.

Short Answer Questions

1. Hyeonseo remarks that the family's home by the river in Hyesan was perfect for what?

2. On what instrument did Hyeonseo teach herself to play her favorite song?

3. What was the sentence given to the family deported for the father's mistake of rolling a cigarette using a piece of newspaper and failing to notice a picture of the Great Leader on the other side of the scrap?

4. What unconventional and technically illegal hairstyle did Hyeonseo wear while attending school in Hyesan?

5. What trait does Hyeonseo say that she and her brother had in common with their mother?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. 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?

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

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

7. What are the two types of prison in the gulag?

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

9. What does the family's color television symbolize within the narrative?

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

(see the answer keys)

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