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

2. About how many years older than the narrator is the older brother?
(a) 5 years.
(b) 2 years.
(c) 3 years.
(d) 6 years.

3. What helps to awaken the narrator's sexuality?
(a) Her new clothing.
(b) Her schooling.
(c) A play she sees.
(d) The mother.

4. What does the mother suffer from throughout the narrator's life?
(a) Rashes.
(b) Nausea.
(c) Depression.
(d) Headaches.

5. How does the narrator think the younger brother died?
(a) By drowning.
(b) From fear.
(c) From a heart attack.
(d) From an infectious disease.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator consider takes a personal toll on women?

2. What is the name of the family's loyal domestic servant?

3. What contributed to the narrator's ravaged face?

4. Who takes care of the family property?

5. What is the mother obsessed with in regards to the narrator?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narration of events work in this novel? Is the way that narrator chooses to tell the story confusing or compelling?

2. In segment 14, the school officially complains to the mother about the outlandish behavior of her daughter. What does the mother say and how does the school respond?

3. Explain why the relationship would not have lasted even if the narrator would have remained in Chochinchina.

4. How does the father's death affect the family?

5. What metaphor is used in sync with the narrator's perfect moment in time, when she is on the ferry where she will meet the lover?

6. Would the brothers and the narrator be considered to be equals?

7. Why does the narrator find the lover uncovered in front of her family?

8. What does the lover fear that the narrator wants from the relationship, and how does the narrator respond?

9. In the opening of the novel, how does the narrator appear?

10. Describe the sequence of events that lead up to the narrator meeting the lover.

(see the answer keys)

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