View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following is noted as a source for the fire in the Atashkadeh?

2. Which of the following trees lines the walkways of the public garden in Yazd Darius visits with Sohrab and his family?

3. What celebration typically marks Sizdeh Bedar, per the novel?

4. In which of the following colors are the Bahramis’ boxes of jasmine painted?

5. The comment that “It’s like Springfield back in the United States: There is one in every province” (240) offers an example of which of the following?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Darius end up feeling sorry for Ali-Reza?

2. Why, as Darius asserts to Sohrab at the Bahrami Nowruz celebration, does he think Stephen does not love him?

3. What reasons does Darius note for identifying Sohrab as a good listener at the Bahrami Nowruz celebration?

4. What does Darius wonder about Ardeshir as he helps him set up card tables for serving chelo kabob?

5. Why does Darius realize Sohrab had been surprised he had not agreed to visit him on the day after Nowruz?

6. Why, per Darius, is sumac served as an accompaniment to chelo kabob?

7. What does Darius confess to Sohrab that leads him to affirm that Laleh cannot take his place?

8. What does Darius note that he likes best of all in Sohrab?

9. What is sky burial in the novel?

10. What litter does Darius note as he flees from the Rezaei home?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Darius considers the following:

“I wondered if all fathers secretly wanted to kill their sons. Just a little bit.

“Maybe that explained Stephen Kellner.

“Maybe it did” (89).

Is Darius’s wondering correct within the context of the novel? What in the text indicates whether it is or not? How does it do so.

Essay Topic 2

At the end of “Chelo Kabob,” Stephen appears to reach an accord with his father- and brothers-in-law during a conversation about grilling (261). Why would the topic serve such a function? What in the novel and in experience indicates as much? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the following exchange between Stephen and Darius:

But then Dad looked at me and said, “Love you, Darius.”

And I said, “Love you, Dad.”

And that meant we weren’t going to talk about it anymore (62).

Why would a mutual affirmation of love foreclose discussion of a topic? What in the text and in experience suggests as much? How does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 738 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample