View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Chapter 1: "The Coast," the narrator says that "to welcome the newly loosed spirit [of the dead], the living will not clean, will not wash or tidy, will not remove the soul’s belongings for" how many days?

2. Where does the tiger find himself at an abandoned market "two blocks up from where my grandfather and my grandma would buy their first apartment fifteen years later," according to Natalia in Chapter 4: "The Tiger"?

3. What is the name of the twenty-one-year-old self-proclaimed gun-runner that Zora begins dating when she is fifteen in Chapter 2: "The War"?

4. How many days did it take the clinic staff where Natalia's grandfather died to contact Natalia's grandmother and inform her of his death in Chapter 1: "The Coast"?

5. What is the name of the digger's son that Natalia tries to get sent home from the site because he has fever in Chapter 3: "The Diggers"?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Natalia describe her visit with her grandfather to Verimovo in Chapter 6: "The Fire"? Where did they go there?

2. What information does Natalia learn about her grandfather's death from the barkeeper in Zdrevkov in Chapter 5: "The Orphanage"?

3. What do Natalia and Zora go to the monastery to do in Chapter 5: "The Orphanage"? What is foreshadowed when Zora gives out candy?

4. How does Natalia describe her grandfather's childhood in Chapter 4: "The Tiger"? Who raised Natalia's grandfather? Where did he grow up?

5. In Chapter 2: "The War," Natalia comments, "Everything necessary to understand my grandfather lies between two stories." What are these stories and what does Natalia mean by this comment?

6. How does Natalia discover the location of Zdrevkov in Chapter 5: "The Orphanage"? Why is this location important to Natalia?

7. What discussion takes place in Chapter 6: "The Fire" between Natalia and her grandfather when he asks what she will choose to specialize in?

8. How is the departure of Gavran Gaile described in Chapter 6: "The Fire"? What does he remind Natalia's grandfather of before he leaves?

9. What causes the argument between Natalia and Dure in Chapter 3: "The Diggers"? How does the conflict end?

10. How does Natalia's grandfather respond when she discusses her excitement over the elephant and her desire to tell her friends about the incident? Why is this comment significant?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the character of the tiger’s wife as perceived through Natalia’s grandfather’s point of view. How close in age are the grandfather and the tiger’s wife in the grandfather’s stories? What do you think draws Natalia’s grandfather to this otherwise misunderstood character? Why does he attempt to help her?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. When was this book published? Who are the main characters in the story? What does The Jungle Book symbolize to Natalia’s grandfather? Who gave him the book? What does the lack of the book in the grandfather’s personal effects represent to Natalia?

Essay Topic 3

In the novel’s Epilogue, Natalia says of the Galina tiger, “Everything lies dead in his memory, except for the tiger's wife, for whom, on certain nights, he goes calling, making that tight note that falls and falls. The sound is lonely, and low, and no-one hears it any more.” In what ways does Natalia’s metaphoric meaning refer to the various tigers that appear in the narrative? In what ways does that meaning also refer to the various characters and their lives, particularly their thematically central struggles to live their own lives?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,226 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample