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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why are homeless people often evicted from the park where they live?
(a) They are evicted whenever the imperial family comes to visit a local museum.
(b) They are evicted because it is illegal to be homeless in Tokyo.
(c) They are evicted because they often cause problems in the park.
(d) They are evicted because the locals complain about their presence.

2. According to Kazu's father, how long had there ancestors been in Soma?
(a) 50 years.
(b) 200 years.
(c) 100 years.
(d) 500 years.

3. Who is the author of Tokyo Ueno Station?
(a) Yu Miri.
(b) Haruki Murakami.
(c) Yoko Mori.
(d) Kazu Mori.

4. Who brought Kazu and his wife to the morgue after their son's death?
(a) Yoko.
(b) Yoko's husband.
(c) Mari.
(d) Kazu's mother.

5. What did the priest tell Setsuko is "humanity's worst impulse" (72)?
(a) To try to imagine a loved one's final moments.
(b) To dwell too much on the past.
(c) Not allow themselves time to mourn.
(d) To try to forget the dead.

6. How old were Kazu's parents when they died?
(a) In their 80s.
(b) In their 70s.
(c) In their 60s.
(d) In their 90s.

7. What was the Buddhist name given to Koichi at his funeral?
(a) Shaku Karma.
(b) Shaku Junko.
(c) Shaku Bodhi.
(d) Shaku Banko.

8. What do Pure Land followers believe happens to their dead?
(a) They are reborn as Buddhas and watch over their family every day.
(b) They return to visit their family once a year during Bon festival.
(c) They are gone forever.
(d) They are reincarnated and come back to the same family.

9. What did Osamu say about Koichi when he looked at his face after Setsuko removed the white cloth?
(a) It looked like he was sleeping.
(b) He looked so much like his father.
(c) He was such a kind person.
(d) It did not look like him.

10. What happened to much of Kazu and his family's things right around Koichi's birth?
(a) They sold most of their things to neighbors.
(b) Everything got washed away in a tsunami.
(c) Someone robbed them.
(d) They were repossessed.

11. What does Kazu recall about the war despite being young when it began?
(a) He recalls his parents discussing it over dinner.
(b) He recalls being hungry due to food shortages.
(c) He recalls being frightened he would have to fight.
(d) He recalls a neighbor who was killed during the war.

12. How much education did Kazu complete before going to work to help support his family?
(a) Middle school.
(b) High school.
(c) Elementary school.
(d) Some college.

13. Who lent Kazu his mourning clothes, which Setsuko gave him on the day of Koichi's funeral?
(a) Kazu's father.
(b) Kazu's boss.
(c) The head of the neighborhood association.
(d) Kazu's son-in-law.

14. What brought many of the homeless to Tokyo in the first place?
(a) They came after their villages were destroyed by tsunamis.
(b) They came because they heard people took care of the homeless.
(c) They came to see the Olympics and never left.
(d) They came in search of work.

15. Though the Soma gave Kazu's ancestor's land why were they unable to grow anything at first?
(a) They did not know how to work the land.
(b) There was a long drought when they first arrived.
(c) They did not get enough sun.
(d) They did not give them the right to irrigate the land.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the name of the park Kazu haunts and used to live in when he was alive?

2. Why did the midwife say the birth of their son Koichi was a blessing?

3. Who is typically the person to carry the funeral tablet at a funeral?

4. What are some of the ways Kazu recalls getting food when he was homeless?

5. What news did Kazu receive about his son just days before his death?

(see the answer keys)

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