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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 does the name "Lao" mean in Mandarin Chinese?

2. Where were the Chinese literature students sent to work?

3. What necessary tool did the Beida students accuse the work team of failing to employ?

4. What political decision did Yue Daiyun make upon her return to Beida after her two-year absence?

5. What was the rationale for putting literature students to hard physical labor?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Yue Daiyun decide not to object to being considered a rightist?

2. Where had the idea of parading enemies come from?

3. In 1976, what did the students do to Yue Daiyun's home?

4. Why was Yue Daiyun to be criticized while on maternity leave?

5. What does it mean to "draw a line" between yourself and another person?

6. What is the message of Yue Daiyun's poem "To the Storm"?

7. Why did Yue Daiyun admire Tang Yongtong?

8. What advice does Lao Wei give Yue Daiyun about survival in the countryside?

9. What was the job of the sent-down cadres in the countryside?

10. What was unusual for Yue Daiyun about the National Day Celebration in 1963?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

During the time that is portrayed in this memoir, military and police power were placed in the hands of committees and groups - sometimes self-appointed, as the student groups were. In your essay, discuss the results of these shifts in power.

Essay Topic 2

Much of Yue Daiyun's philosophy depended on Chairman Mao and her adulation of him and firm belief in his teachings. In your essay, explore her relationship with this leader of her country and how her opinion of him changed and developed as she went through her life experiences.

Essay Topic 3

What differences do you see between the administration of sanctions in China and in other countries? Who determines who is at fault? Who determines the punishment? What effect do those differences have on Yue Daiyun and her family?

(see the answer keys)

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