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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 Wang Yu do during their journey that disillusions De-hong about their marriage?

2. Why do De-hong and her husband have to walk to their new transfer site?

3. How does Pei-o die?

4. Why does Chang Shou-yu refuse to send his pregnant sick wife to a larger hospital?

5. Why does De-hong refuse so many marriage proposals?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Wang Yu and De-hong know each other before ever meeting each other?

2. What does De-hong see a friend's husband do on their journey that makes her lose faith in her own marriage?

3. What did Chang Shou-yu do to show his growing love for his family that makes De-hong call him a "silly old thing"?

4. What is De-hong not allowed to use because of it's "bourgeois" nature?

5. After all the other groups that took up occupancy in China, the Communists did something that was surprising to the Chinese people. What was this?

6. What was the only valuable asset that Yang Ru-shan had to sell in order to gain the money he needed?

7. What happened to the Japanese people who remained in China after they were defeated?

8. Why does Wang Yu refuse to let De-hong have the driver take her home early from the opera?

9. What does Fang-Yu do on her visit with De-hong that the Communist Party forbids?

10. What happens to cause Dr. Xia to leave his children and his home?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Chang Shou-yu puts his political views over the welfare of his family many different times throughout the novel. What are some of those instances? How did his family react to this treatment? How did the public react to these actions? When did he change? Why did he change?

Essay Topic 2

Fang-Yu has two major relationships in this book. Who were the relationships with, and how were they so different? How did each relationship affect De-hong's life?

Essay Topic 3

What are some major differences between the Chinese culture and our own culture? How would this story have been different had it taken place in America? How did the Chinese setting affect the plot of the book?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 680 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample