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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. Which best describes the body of the narrator?
(a) Chubby.
(b) Youthful and thin.
(c) Short and stalky.
(d) Mature and full.

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

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

4. After the father's death, what happens to the family property the mother invests in ?
(a) The lands thrive and the family makes money off of it.
(b) Villagers set fire to it, and it becomes a wasteland.
(c) It isn't taken care of properly and falls into decay.
(d) It is sold to a nearby village who builds a school on it.

5. 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) 25 to 30.
(b) 30 to 40.
(c) 15 to 19.
(d) 18 to 25.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the mother equate the narrator's awakening sexuality with?

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

3. Which does NOT describe Hélène Lagonelle?

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

5. About how old is the older brother when the mother dies?

Short Essay Questions

1. Since the family's wealth is tied up in the land investments, how does the mother provide income for the family? How does the income benefit the family?

2. Do the narrator and the lover have contact at any point after the narrator leaves Chochinchina for France? If so, describe this contact.

3. How was Dô, the family servant, treated by the family, and how did she react to this treatment?

4. What is the relationship between the mother and Dô, and what does it indicate?

5. In what way does the narrator participate in the trend of the colonial potentates taking younger French mistresses?

6. Why does the lover fear the relationship will become public?

7. What events transpire on the trip to France aboard the ocean liner? Why are they important?

8. What structural functions does the opening segment of the novel perform?

9. The lover makes a comment about the narrator's method of transportation. What is it...why is it strange... and what does it indicate?

10. How does the moment on the ferry where the narrator meets the lover become a turning point in the life of the narrator and her family?

(see the answer keys)

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