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

Short Answer Questions

1. What group of volunteers is one of the most effective on the island in Part I?

2. Why does a friend of Rania Kassem's insist she leave the camp in the end of the section titled "How to Become a Westerner"?

3. What does Rania Kassem do for a living?

4. Why does Mina think the orangutan does not attack her in Part II?

5. Where does Mina recall meeting the writer unofficially some years earlier?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who was the only person Mina ever talked about her family with and why?

2. Why is Mina estranged from her parents and siblings except for Mazen?

3. Who did Mina worship as a young child and try to model herself after?

4. What is one of Emma's most defining characteristics, according to Mina?

5. What does Mina buy for the children in "The Little Rascals Go to Camp" and how does this turn out?

6. Why has Emma asked Mina to come help on Lesbos?

7. Why does Francine not like Emma?

8. What does Mina remember her mother spending a lot of extra money on when she was a child?

9. In "Here Comes the Boat," why is Mina so concerned about Sumaiya?

10. In "Doctors in Drag," why does the family ask Mina if she is a man?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What does Alameddine's book title refer to, and why do you think he chose this title for this novel? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 2

What do you think Alameddine is trying to communicate to the reader through Francine's suggestion to the unnamed writer at the end of the novel that he write a novel about suburban Americans that refugees might read and enjoy? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 3

Why does Mina become so emotionally involved with Sumaiya, and what does Alameddine reveal about the particularities of a doctor-patient relationship in a refugee setting through these two characters? Write an essay explaining your answers.

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