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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. Who is Yoko's only friend at school?

2. What happens to Hideyo when he reaches the farmhouse?

3. What is Yoko's favorite subject?

4. What does Yoko ask Mother at the end of Chapter 8?

5. What physical attribute is Yoko very self-conscious about?

Short Essay Questions

1. How would you characterize Yoko's classmates' experience during the final months of the war based on the way she is received?

2. Why do you think Yoko ponders that "it was strange that we did not think more of father, whom we loved dearly" instead of Hideyo?

3. Describe the emotions Ko and Yoko experience in the first few pages of Chapter 9.

4. What rituals and traditions do Yoko and Ko perform in honor of New Year's? What significance do they have?

5. What motivates Hideyo to press on as he struggles through the storm?

6. Why do you think Yoko would choose to write about her experiences at school rather than the ordeal she and her family endured when leaving Korea?

7. How does Yoko feel when she disembarks the boat in Fukuoka?

8. In order to survive for as long as Hideyo has in the conditions he has endured, what character traits do you think he possesses?

9. At this point in the story, what defines "normal" for Yoko and Ko?

10. How does Ko demonstrate the importance of respect in Japanese culture?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What role does family play in the book? How is the importance of family symbolized? At what cost does the family try to stay together? Are there characters in the book who are not blood relatives but act as such? Give specific examples.

Essay Topic 2

Why do you think Yoko titled her essay "Understanding?" Do you think a different title would have been more fitting? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

How do the main characters deal with the tragedies and atrocities inherently related to war?

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