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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. What is Uncle Chinh's specialty dish?

2. How does Hang describe the current landscape?

3. Hang visits whose grave?

4. Hang discovers that who died last winter?

5. What does Hang consider the "greatest human sadness?"

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Hang feel about Aunt Tam's village?

2. Describe the apartment Uncle Chinh has been staying at.

3. What is the relationship between Madame Dua and Aunt Tam?

4. How does Que provide for Chinh's medical care?

5. Describe Hang's nostalgia about fog.

6. Describe Hang's thoughts about separation.

7. Describe the English artist's paintings.

8. What is the story Aunt Tam tells about an honest minister?

9. What does Hang envision for her future?

10. How does Que treat Hang when she returns from the celebration at Aunt Tam's?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Hang struggles during her childhood with her identity as a fatherless child. When Que finally tells her the story of Ton, Hang is reassured by the fact that she was conceived in love. How does this knowledge change Hang's outlook? Why do you think that information is capable of affecting Hang so profoundly? Why is it so important to Hang?

Essay Topic 2

Hang describes feeling homesick while living in Russia and on the train ride back. However, when she arrives back in Vietnam, she feels the landscape to be oppressive. Define nostalgia/ How can memories trick a person into thinking something that is not true? Is our inability to have perfect recall a positive or negative thing?

Essay Topic 3

Although Tam and Que have come to each other's aid over the years, they have a difficult relationship. Describe how Aunt Tam and Que are related to each other and how this might explain the way they act towards one another.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 624 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample