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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Mahmoud's family makes the decision not to wait in Athens to acquire what items?
(a) Visas.
(b) Work permits.
(c) Passports.
(d) Official travel permits.

2. What percentage of the adult fare does the smuggler engaged by Mahmoud's father charge for children and babies?
(a) 80%.
(b) 50%.
(c) 25%.
(d) 100%.

3. What does Mahmoud do to honor his deceased fellow passenger when he takes the man's life jacket and buries him at sea?
(a) He washes the man's face.
(b) He turns the man toward Mecca.
(c) He shuts the man's eyes.
(d) He says a funeral prayer.

4. Of the refugees boarding the dinghy with Mahmoud's family, what does the narrator say is the kind of person constituting the majority of the passengers?
(a) Middle-aged men.
(b) Young families.
(c) Young men.
(d) Young women.

5. Where does the Greek Coast Guard take Mahmoud and the other refugees at dawn once the boat is full of people?
(a) Tuscany.
(b) Cypress.
(c) Sicily.
(d) Lesbos.

6. What action does Waleed take throughout the entire robbery by the taxi driver, causing Mahmoud to worry about his emotional well-being?
(a) He sucks his thumb.
(b) He sleeps.
(c) He rocks.
(d) He sobs.

7. When Isabel and her family learn where they have actually landed in their boat, what does an official tell them will happen if they come all the way ashore?
(a) They will be deported back to Cuba.
(b) They will be imprisoned immediately.
(c) They will be granted sanctuary.
(d) They will be held in a detention center.

8. The narrator remarks that despite the number of dead bodies Mahmoud has seen, the experience of "seeing death" (180) never stops being what?
(a) Sad.
(b) Horrifying.
(c) Alarming.
(d) Deadening.

9. When Josef's father is in the throes of a mental breakdown, he tells Josef that each night at the concentration camp, the prisoners were forced to watch one prisoner do what?
(a) Drown.
(b) Commit suicide by gunshot.
(c) Be buried alive.
(d) Burn.

10. What phrase does Mahmoud think to himself over and over once he is hit by tear gas at the hands of Hungarian soldiers?
(a) "I'm going to die."
(b) "I can't die here."
(c) "Please no."
(d) "I can't breathe."

11. Where does Josef's mother take Ruthie so that she can enact her plan to calm her husband?
(a) To a puppet show.
(b) To the library.
(c) To the gymnasium.
(d) To the pool.

12. Which of Josef's family members is left behind when the ship leaves the Cuban harbor?
(a) Josef's mother.
(b) Josef's cousin.
(c) Josef's sister.
(d) Josef's father.

13. After Amara and Isabel's action that reduces the drag on the boat, who tells them that they have doomed every passenger on the boat?
(a) Luis.
(b) Lito.
(c) Señor Castillo.
(d) Señora Castillo.

14. When Josef's ship's engines roar to life for the first time since arriving in a Cuban harbor, where do the passengers believe the ship will be going next?
(a) Cypress.
(b) Poland.
(c) Germany.
(d) Lesbos.

15. After whom is Josef named?
(a) His uncle.
(b) His godfather.
(c) His grandfather.
(d) His father.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Isabel do just before Ivan's body is buried at sea?

2. What extra danger does the rescuer of Josef's father face during his dive into the ocean, where Josef's father flounders?

3. Who suggests that two of the boat's passengers get into the water and hang onto the boat in order to reduce the risk of capsizing?

4. Who rescues Josef's father Aaron from the sea after Aaron jumps overboard?

5. When Mahmoud cries with "exhaustion and misery" (192) while floating in the sea and wants "to do it all over again," what is NOT something he includes on the list of things he would do differently?

(see the answer keys)

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