View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the name of the Austrian national anthem?

2. By what name was James Morris later called?

3. What was the name of the Japanese religion implicated in the rise of nationalism?

4. What does the author call a tonic at the beginning of Chapter 17?

5. What country does Viktor help his cousins get to?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Viktor escape Slovakia?

2. What does Edmund's father find for Edmund that he thinks will be important to his research?

3. Why were the netsuke so important to the children?

4. How did Elisabeth help her parents flee the country?

5. Why did Iggy like Japan?

6. How did Austrian government react to the atrocities of World War Two?

7. How is it suggested that the American took advantage of the Japanese during their occupation of the country?

8. How did the Japanese company Sony develop?

9. What was the children's relationship with the netsuke?

10. What does Edmund discover about how Viktor and Emmy lived their lives?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How did his family's suffering effect de Waal's own upbringing? How has de Waal tried to cope with what his family has been through? Do the students think second and third generations can be effected by problems that occurred within their family over 50 years before?

Essay Topic 2

Choose one of the city's de Waal visits in the book.

1. How did war change the city? What was it like before the war?

2. How did each city help develop the identity of de Waal's family?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the differences between the novel and autobiography formats. What are the main elements of a book? What are the main elements of an autobiography? What can novelists express that an autobiographer cannot? How can autobiographies keep to the facts while still maintaining a level of entertainment?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 867 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample