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

3. To what city does Hyeonseo's family move after leaving Hyesan?

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

5. What organization had Hyeonseo's grandmother joined at the age of 19?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. 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?

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

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

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

7. What is the "only permitted outlet for spiritual fervor" (41) in North Korea and what does the author say is the punishment for seeking out different means of spirituality?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The epilogue of the memoir provides the reader with Hyeonseo's final thoughts about how her North Korean upbringing and her subsequent life events have shaped her as a person. Discuss the author's choice to include this epilogue and its intended effect on the reader within the context of the whole memoir.

Essay Topic 2

What is the significance of scene in which Hyeonseo wears her new boots to school? How does the author use this event as a metaphor for a particular piece of her worldview and what message does she send to the reader through her relaying of this event?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss three different women that appear within the book's narrative and compare and contrast their characteristics. How do their roles differ and how are their roles similar? Taken together, what depiction of women is present in the overall narrative?

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