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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. The driver's side door in the Jimenez family car required which object to hold it closed?

2. How many hours per week did Francisco work before he left to attend college in California?

3. What color were the uniforms for members of the ROTC, according to Francisco?

4. How many hours per week did Francisco work during his first summer home from college?

5. What kind of music was played at the dance at Cervantes Hall?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did a green uniform used to signify for Jimenez and why?

2. Describe an instance when Jimenez uses a simile in order to underscore the nature of a particular emotion.

3. Discuss a time in the memoir when Jimenez makes a connection between racism and some other form of prejudice.

4. What element of the student body's demographics surprises Jimenez when he arrives at the University of Santa Clara?

5. Describe the conflicted nature of Jimenez's feelings as the memoir opens.

6. What part of Jimenez's membership in the ROTC did he loathe?

7. What major event is taking place at the time of the memoir's opening?

8. What has been the nickname of Jimenez's little brother Jose Francisco throughout the boys' lives and why?

9. What good news did Jimenez receive shortly after the drunken weekend that caused him to feel deep shame?

10. Which member of the Jimenez family is singled out as the person he will miss the most and why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Jimenez’s use of the first person point of view to tell his own story serve the purposes of the text? Discuss how Jimenez’s choice of point of view helps to advance the treatment of at least three particular themes within the text.

Essay Topic 2

How is the theme of injustice portrayed within Reaching Out? Examine Jimenez's treatment of and messages regarding injustice throughout the work.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Jimenez’s use of the motif of sound within the nonfiction work Reaching Out.

(see the answer keys)

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