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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. Which of the following is the first line of “As a Consequence of My Brother Stealing All the Lightbulbs”?

2. Which of the following does the narrator associate with the loincloth of a greedy god?

3. Which of the following is the first line of “Monday Aubade”?

4. Which of the following does the narrator of “Toward the Amaranth Gates of War or Love” claim is the purpose of war?

5. In “Zoology,” which of the following does the narrator note being poised to eat?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator explain at the end of “Soirée Fantastique”?

2. How is the room onto which “the door of your hip” opens in “Monday Aubade” described (83)?

3. What reasons does the narrator give for taking her brother to dinner?

4. How does the narrator summarize the appearance of her parents’ home in “How to Go to Dinner with a Brother on Drugs”?

5. What questions does the narrator ask in “Toward the Amaranth Gates of War or Love” (75)?

6. What does the narrator note possibly wanting to see fall near the end of “Black Magic Brother”?

7. How does the narrator of “I Lean Out the Window and She Nods Off in Bed, the Needle Gently Rocking on the Bedside Table” note having been created?

8. What annoyance does the narrator note finding in Jesus in “Soirée Fantastique”?

9. Into what sections is “Formication” divided?

10. What explanations are offered for the narrator’s brother’s arrests in “Downhill Triolets”?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider the names of several characters (e.g., Guy No-Horse, Mary Busted-Chest, Eve Side-Stealer) in the collection as kennings. Given such a function, what name might be expected of the narrator and her brother? What in the text suggests as much, and how does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

What is the most important theme of Diaz’s collection? What in the book indicates as much? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

An epigraph is generally expected to speak to or set the tone for the work it precedes. Does the epigraph of When My Brother Was an Aztec do so for its collection? How or how not?

(see the answer keys)

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