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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 does Kien dream about in hospital?
(a) His mother
(b) His childhood friend
(c) His lover, Phuong
(d) His pet dog

2. When did Kien's father die?
(a) During the first air raids to attack Hanoi
(b) During the war
(c) Before he was born
(d) During the 1990's

3. What did Phuong have to do during the war in order to survive?
(a) Become a killer
(b) Become a smuggler
(c) Become a thief
(d) Become a prostitute

4. What does Phuong want Kien to be?
(a) A famous general
(b) A famous politician
(c) More like his father
(d) More like his mother

5. What object does Kien receive years later?
(a) Military-issued gun
(b) Letter
(c) Painting
(d) Medal

Short Answer Questions

1. Where did Kien go, many years after the war had ended?

2. What musical instrument was Phuong especially good at?

3. What does Kien often wonder about his past colleagues?

4. How does Phuong and Kien separate after their night at the abandoned school?

5. Where did Kien meet Phuong?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Kien not kill the commandos responsible for the farmhouse massacre?

2. Why does Kien discover about his father's paintings?

3. What does Kien hallucinate about his nurse in Hanoi?

4. What do the characters of Tu and Cam have in common?

5. What musical instrument did Phuong play as a child, which indicates to Kien that she is a troubled soul?

6. Why was it lucky that Phuong and Kien missed the train just as war started?

7. Why does Kien almost kill himself?

8. Why does Kien refuse to sleep with Phuong before the war?

9. Why does Phuong want Kien to be more like his father?

10. Why is Kien ridiculed by his fellows in the post war period?

(see the answer keys)

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