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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How do children traveling to the United States plan to find their mothers?
(a) They will call home and ask relatives to give them an address.
(b) They will ask an officer for help at the immigration check point.
(c) They plan to email them once they make it across the U.S. border.
(d) They carry their mother's phone numbers with them on their journey.

2. What other nickname does Nazario share for the train?
(a) The Train of Despair.
(b) The Train of Distance.
(c) The Train of Death.
(d) The Train That Devours.

3. How many gangs control the tops of freight trains that operate north of the Río Suchiate?
(a) 56.
(b) 25.
(c) 19.
(d) 100.

4. On his eighth trip through Chiapas, where does Enrique decide to sleep?
(a) He sleeps in the cemetery.
(b) He sleeps in the train station.
(c) He sleeps in a clump of grass.
(d) He sleeps at someone's house.

5. Enrique's grandmother writes a letter to Lourdes. What does it say?
(a) Lourdes needs to come home.
(b) Lourdes must find Enrique another home.
(c) She is very sick, and she might not survive.
(d) Enrique is a joy, and she is excited to have him staying with her.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do the bandits do once the day's robberies are over?

2. What does Enrique do to escape his attackers?

3. What does Enrique do when the migra agents spot him on top of the train in Chapter 3?

4. Why is Enrique assaulted?

5. Who is the field worker that discovers Enrique stumbling in a field?

Short Essay Questions

1. When does Enrique begin working? What does he do? Why must he work?

2. How is the theme of family disintegration illustrated through Maria Isabel in Chapter 2?

3. What are madrinas and what is the concern regarding them?

4. Who is Minor and what information is related from him in the Prologue?

5. With whom does Lourdes leave her children? Why?

6. What has led to Enrique’s injuries in the opening of Chapter 2?

7. How is Enrique treated by the locals after his injuries are treated in Chapter 2?

8. What does Enrique do upon arriving at Ixtepec, Oaxaca, Mexico?

9. Why is Chiapas referred to as the beast by the migrants?

10. Discuss the genre of this book. How is that genre presented stylistically?

(see the answer keys)

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