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. What did the Germans refuse to purchase for the pigs?

2. How did Jan and Antonina know the German soldier who came to the villa to tell them that Lutz Heck wanted to see them?

3. Who told Antonina that the Polish army was planning to surrender?

4. How did Rys first hear about the impending war?

5. What is an aurochs?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Why did the Resistance use cryptonyms?

3. Why did Jan suggest that the zoo be used to raise pigs?

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

5. Why did the Zabinskis frequently invite non-Jewish visitors to the villa?

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

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

8. Why did the Germans take children with Aryan features to be raised in Germany?

9. Why did Jan feel such a strong connection with the Jews?

10. Why were the Warsaw Zoo’s polar bears shot by Polish soldiers?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay explaining the significance of the title of the book. Why did the author choose to write about Antonina rather than Jan? How does making Jan the protagonist of the book support Ackerman’s themes?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay explaining the author’s development and use of the theme of courage. What suggestion does the author make about courage? How does she use people to strengthen the theme?

Essay Topic 3

Ackerman describes the zoo in detail before it is destroyed during the war, and also describes the damage that is done as a result of the war. Write an essay explaining the importance of the way in which Ackerman describes the zoo as the book begins and how the zoo changes as the story unfolds. How do the changes to the zoo affect the people who call it home?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 727 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample