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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. How many marines are killed in Beirut in the 1980s?

2. What event increases anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe that the narrator notes in the chapter "Every Country Gets the Refugees it Deserves"?

3. About how much does the Turkish mafia charge refugees for the passage of each person?

4. Where does the writer visit Asma in Part IV, long after meeting her on Lesbos?

5. How is Pete Jones injured in war?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Mina think of George W. Bush's post-9/11 speech?

3. What is the jewel in the dream house the writer's father built in Lebanon?

4. What is the relationship between Sammy and Sumaiya like?

5. What destroys the writer's family home in Lebanon eventually?

6. Why does Mazen get so mad at the western journalists' questioning of Sammy and Samaiya?

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

8. What does Rasheed say Mina should wear so the women in the refugee camp will trust her more?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why does Mina ultimately help Sumaiya to end her own life? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusion.

Essay Topic 2

How does Alameddine treat the topic of empathy throughout the novel? Why do you think Alameddine has the unnamed writer proclaim that empathy is overrated? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 3

How does Alameddine describe Mina's process of gender transition? Why do you think he chooses to pace the revelations about Mina's gender transition the way he does throughout the novel? Write an essay explaining your answers.

(see the answer keys)

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