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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. Why does Cantu arrest one of the men in the car he stops on page 70?

2. What does Cole do with the hand sanitizer he asks the Border Patrol agents for on page 32?

3. What is Cantu's colleague Cole's nickname?

4. On page 76, what does Cantu's mother tell him she is worried about apart from his safety on his job?

5. On page 77, why is Cantu so frustrated that he loses the trail of the 20 or so immigrants he is tracking in the desert?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do some of the other Border Patrol agents suggest might help combat the smell of dead bodies when going out to recover them in the desert?

2. What does Cantu feel when he goes to visit Morales in the hospital following his motorcycle accident?

3. How does Mortenson treat Cantu when they first meet on the job?

4. What fears do Adam and his wife, living in a border town, have about the men who come to the house demanding things?

5. Why does Cantu want to see his classmate Santiago graduate the most out of all his classmates in Border Patrol Training?

6. What do Cantu and his mother always do as a tradition on Christmas Eve together?

7. Why is Cantu so nervous when he comes home from work late one night to see a man lurking in the dark on his street?

8. Who did Cantu's mother name him after and what was his namesake known for?

9. Why do Cantu and other Border Patrol agents destroy any of the belongings and provisions they find in the desert?

10. How does Cantu's own experiences in Ciudad Juarez compare to what he has heard about the city?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When Cantu tells his mother he has decided to become a Border Patrol officer, she is apprehensive and honest with him about her many misgivings surrounding this choice. Write an essay analyzing Cantu's mother's reasons against him joining the Border Patrol forces.

Essay Topic 2

How does Cantu's uncle's guilt about the work he did marring the natural landscape relate to Cantu's own feelings about the work he has done as a Border Patrol officer? Write an essay explaining your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Soon after Cantu starts his field work with Border Patrol, he begins to get a sense that the work is not what he expected. He quickly becomes demoralized and disturbed both by what he sees and by the structural limitations of the job itself. Write an essay discussing how Cantu's earliest experiences performing field work with Border Patrol contradict his hopes and expectations about what the job would be like and what he may have been able to learn from it.

(see the answer keys)

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