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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. How does Christopher describe the atmosphere at breakfast on the days of the campaign meetings.

2. What does Christopher remember about the days immediately following his failure to take the lotion back to Ling Tien's room?

3. Where does Jennifer live before Christopher adopts her?

4. How does Sarah react to Christopher at the Mayfair party?

5. What is Christopher's relationship to James Osbourne?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the game Christopher and Akira invent.

2. What is the "dining room episode?"

3. Describe an instance of Mr. Banks boasting.

4. What does Sarah tell Christopher about marriage?

5. How does Christopher feel about Akira the summer prior to his friend's leaving for school in Nagasaki?

6. Describe two examples of what Christopher refers to as "someone disapproving him and only just managing to conceal it."

7. Describe the opium campaign meetings.

8. How does Sarah Hemmings treat Christopher at the Mayfair flat?

9. Describe Christopher's reunion with Colonel Chamberlain.

10. How does Christopher tend to remember his boyhood companion Akira?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is Jennifer's role in the story? What does she represent for Christopher? Why is Christopher so eager to adopt her?

Essay Topic 2

The motif of the outsider is featured in WHEN WE WERE ORPHANS. Choose three scenes from the novel where Ishiguro uses this motif to advance the plot and develop characters. How is this done?

Essay Topic 3

It is a mixed blessing when Christopher finds his mother and discovers what happened to his father. Why? What does Christopher gain? What is taken away? How is he transformed?

(see the answer keys)

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