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This test consists of 5 short answer questions and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the ghost that sits on top of Maxine's mother called?

2. How is Moon Orchid's daughter's husband described?

3. What does Maxine's mother think has poisoned her?

4. How do Brave Orchid and Moon Orchid get Moon Orchid's husband to come outside of his building?

5. What does Maxine's mother make for people to end infertility?

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 large part of the novel describes the narrator's childhood.

Part 1) Explain at least two of the secrets the narrator has to keep during her childhood. How do you think these secrets affected the narrator's personal and social life?

Part 2) Why do you think the Chinese American children are warned about immigration growing up? Explain what fears immigrants had during the time period of the novel's setting, and how these fears relate to the events of the novel as a whole.

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the novel, the narrator comes into conflict with many different characters. Choose two of these conflicts and describe them in detail, answering the following questions:

1) With whom does the narrator have the conflict?

2) What is the conflict about?

3) How is the conflict resolved?

4) What does the narrator learn from the conflict/how does it relate to her story as a whole?

(see the answer keys)

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