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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. Why do the villagers curse Maxine's aunt's home?

2. Why is Maxine fired from her job at the land developer's association?

3. What does the old couple give the girl, now a young woman, as a parting gift?

4. What is the main reason Maxine's mother likes to tell stores?

5. What did a medium once tell Maxine?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe one possibility the narrator considers to explain how her aunt may have become pregnant.

2. What does speaking American feminine mean to the narrator?

3. Explain how the girl in the white tigers fantasy story meets the old couple who train her.

4. How do Moon Orchid and Brave Orchid act when they are reunited for the first time in years?

5. What are some of the "battles" the narrator feels she must face as a woman warrior in modern society? Name at least two.

6. What is narrator's impression of her mother when looking at the old medical school photograph?

7. Why do you think the narrator feels that her American success is sometimes useless? Give an example to support your position.

8. Why do you think the author emphasized that all of Brave Orchid's children majored in science and math?

9. When she is about to stay overnight in the haunted room at school, what does the narrator's mother tell the other girls at medical school to do if they find her very afraid in the morning?

10. How the narrator feels about the quiet girl at school?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why do you think the narrator had trouble speaking in school? Why do you think she was able to overcome this difficulty later in life? How does the end of the novel relate to the difficulties she had speaking as a child?

Essay Topic 2

A significant portion of this novel deals with storytelling and ghost stories, many of which are told by the narrator's mother. Choose and answer two of the following questions.

1) Do you think the narrator's mother's stories are mostly true? Explain why or why not using specific examples.

2) Why does the narrator's mother tell these stories? Do you think she achieves her purpose in telling them?

3) Which of these stories is your favorite? Explain why or why not. The story you choose must be one the narrator's mother tells, and must not be one you use to answer the other question you choose.

Essay Topic 3

Describe the narrator's relationship with the quiet girl at school, particularly their interactions. Why do you think the narrator picks on the quiet girl? What do the narrator's actions reveal about her upbringing and her opinions about herself?

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