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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which does NOT describe Hélène Lagonelle?
(a) Mature.
(b) Naïve.
(c) Beautiful.
(d) Older than the narrator.

2. In contrast to what the mother plans, what does the narrator want to be?
(a) Seamstress.
(b) Mathematician.
(c) Teacher.
(d) Writer.

3. What type of automobile does the lover ride in?
(a) A bus.
(b) A luxury sedan.
(c) A taxi.
(d) A black limousine.

4. In the beginning of the story, the narrator appears old and "ravaged." During what age period is it noted that her most rapid aging took place?
(a) 15 to 19.
(b) 18 to 25.
(c) 30 to 40.
(d) 25 to 30.

5. What becomes enshrined in the ravaged face of the narrator?
(a) Regret over the lover.
(b) Hatred of the mother.
(c) Fear of the older brother.
(d) Envy of her friend's wealth.

6. The narrator has ____ older sibling(s).
(a) Three.
(b) Two.
(c) Four.
(d) One.

7. What subject does the narrator excel in?
(a) Literature.
(b) Mathematics.
(c) French.
(d) Chinese.

8. Who in the novel is both physically and mentally abusive?
(a) The older brother.
(b) The yonger brother.
(c) The narrator.
(d) The mother.

9. How does the narrator obtain her make-up?
(a) She gets it from Hélène Lagonelle.
(b) She gets it from Dô.
(c) She steals it from a store.
(d) She borrows it from her mother.

10. Later in life, what does the narrator write many books about?
(a) Colonial women.
(b) The family's situation.
(c) Sex.
(d) China.

11. What happened between the older brother and Dô?
(a) She beat him.
(b) They fell in love.
(c) They ran away together.
(d) He attempted to rape her.

12. What river does the ferry travel across that takes the narrator from her home to her school?
(a) Tonkin River.
(b) Mekong River.
(c) Red River.
(d) Saigon River.

13. Later in her life, whose photograph does the narrator see that reminds her of herself as the young woman on the ferry?
(a) Her twenty-year-old son.
(b) Her mother as a young woman.
(c) A movie star of the day.
(d) A friend from her childhood.

14. Who asks about the narrator's family's property investments?
(a) Hélène Lagonelle.
(b) The bus driver and ferry hands.
(c) The government officials.
(d) The lover.

15. Who are evident but unequal friends in the novel?
(a) Hélène Lagonelle and the lover.
(b) The lover and Dô.
(c) The mother and Dô.
(d) Dô and the older brother.

Short Answer Questions

1. While living in the French colony of Chochinchina, in what city is the narrator's school located?

2. The major events recalled in the novel about the time the family lived in Chochinchina happen when the narrator is _________ years old.

3. Where did the family go after the father's death?

4. After the father's death, the mother is in control of the family's finances. She consequently mismanages the money, leaving the family poor. What did the mother buy that resulted in the loss of the family's wealth?

5. Who dies prior to the novel's narration?

(see the answer keys)

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