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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. When was the first time that Sem and his family landed at the Phoenix airport?

2. How old was Harun in 1996?

3. What is a couple driving when they arrive at the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, and an Indian man tells them the park is closed?

4. How long is the flight from Washington to Phoenix?

5. When do Sem and Harun visits Badwater Basin?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Sem connect the pain in his throat and the metallic taste in his mouth to?

2. What happens to Sem when he is getting ready for work?

3. Who was Ilija Ladin, and what did Sem say about him?

4. How does Sem describe Phoenix?

5. What conversation does Sem have with his mother after his heart attack?

6. What is Sem wrapped in when he goes to the hospital and where did he get it from?

7. Where did Sem grow up, and what does he remember about the place?

8. What is Arcosanti?

9. How does Sem describe nostalgia?

10. What story does Sanja tell Sem about smoking?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sem still writes in Bosnian, not English. What is Sem’s relationship to language? Why does he consider himself to be a "prisoner of [his] language" (97)? Why does he still write in Bosnian?

Essay Topic 2

Nurses view Sem and his roommate at the hospital as one person. How do the nurses at the hospital see Sem and his roommate as one person? In what way does the hospital erase the men’s identity?

Essay Topic 3

Sem feels that he is an object when he is examined by the paramedics. Why does Sem feel like an object when he is surrounded by paramedics? What does he realized about his body? Why does he see it as “an object conveying nothing” (9)?

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This section contains 938 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample