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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 animal did Jan raise at the zoo to feed German soldiers?

2. After Antonina heard that the Polish army was going to surrender, who delivered a message to the contrary?

3. Which of the following was an entomologist?

4. How many calories per day were Jews rationed?

5. What event were Jan and Antonina preparing for when the war began?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Dr. Muller help Jan return to Warsaw?

2. How did Antonina describe her friend Magdalena?

3. What made Antonina feel hopeful at first when Lutz Heck came to visit the villa?

4. Why were Antonina’s parents killed when she was nine?

5. What was special about the baby elephant Tuzinka?

6. Why did Lutz Heck want to re-create the aurochs?

7. What was unusual about the baby badger that Antonina raised?

8. What special ability did Antonina have that Jan described as “metaphysical waves”?

9. Why did Antonina compare herself to a lioness when she was staying with her sister-in-law?

10. How does the author describe the sounds of the zoo in the morning before the war?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Ackerman use enemy soldiers to explore the theme of compassion? Why does she include compassionate acts by the soldiers in the book rather than portraying them as purely evil?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay explaining how Ackerman uses the animal motif to explain the Nazi agenda of creating a master human race. Explain what the Nazi’s hoped to achieve and why and how Ackerman compares that to Lutz Heck’s goal of re-creating extinct species.

Essay Topic 3

Wicek and Kuba play important roles in the lives of the Zabinskis as well as in Ackerman’s development of themes and statements about human behavior. Write an essay that explains the importance of these animals, how the author uses them to develop themes, and what she suggests about human behavior through these animals.

(see the answer keys)

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