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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 kind of car does Mina end up buying in Part III?

2. Why does Emma ask the two journalists to leave in Part III?

3. Who made the wings to escape from the island where the Minotaur was born?

4. What piece of jewelry does Mina not have as a child but end up buying for herself as an adult?

5. Which mythical figure flew too close to the sun and ended up dying?

Short Essay Questions

1. What can Mina not help thinking about women from Deir-ez-Zor?

2. In Part IV, what does Mina realize about the economic situations of the refugees she sees in the camps?

3. How does Mina's and Mazen's blood pact work?

4. What particular topic does Mina remember Francine having written about in 2009?

5. What affliction does one woman tell Mina she has in Part IV that Mina can find no physical cause for?

6. How did Mazen first begin reestablishing contact with Mina after some years of estrangement?

7. What does Mina really think of the man who says he worked for a jewler?

8. What incidents does the writer compare to the myth of Icarus?

9. What does Mina know happened to Lesbos and the refugee situation there after she left?

10. Why does Sammy tell the journalists they finally left Syria?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What do you think Alameddine is trying to communicate to the reader with the unnamed writer's panic in hiding in his hotel room for much of his time on Lesbos? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 2

How and why does Alameddine use humor most effectively in the novel? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 3

When and how does Alameddine reveal the unnamed writer's deeply conflicted feelings about his work and about covering the refugee crisis? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

(see the answer keys)

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