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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What did the family expect Makina’s brother to do for them?
(a) Die in battle.
(b) Learn to fly helicopters.
(c) Fight in a foreign war.
(d) Serve out a year’s enlistment.

2. What kind of language do Mexicans speak on the other side?
(a) A purer tongue.
(b) A bastardized tongue.
(c) An intermediary tongue.
(d) A futuristic tongue.

3. Which of the four places with the same name does Makina want?
(a) The one with the park.
(b) The one with the tower.
(c) The one with the bridge.
(d) The one with the canal.

4. Which suburb does Makina need to visit next?
(a) The one with the petroleum refinery.
(b) The one with the prison.
(c) The one with the museum.
(d) The one with the zoo.

5. Who offered Makina’s brother a job?
(a) Mr. P.
(b) An Anglo woman.
(c) An old woman in a restaurant.
(d) An excavator.

6. What does Makina’s brother say when Makina asks about the land?
(a) He tells her a long and complicated lie about how he lost it.
(b) He tells her that he never got there, because he was robbed on the way.
(c) He says that when he got there, the construction was just starting.
(d) He asks if she has gone to see it, as if to say: you know it is worthless.

7. How many times does Makina think she has arrived, only to find out that she has to keep going?
(a) Six.
(b) Eight.
(c) Two.
(d) Four.

8. What does the narrator say is brimming in the immigrants’ language?
(a) Nostalgia.
(b) Grief.
(c) Patience.
(d) Powerlessness.

9. What does the cop tell Makina to do?
(a) Ask permission for anything she wants.
(b) Run.
(c) Surrender her possessions.
(d) Change her clothes.

10. Where is Makina, in her dream, when she is evicted from the ATM booth?
(a) On top of the eighth hill.
(b) In a cave with her brother.
(c) Back in her home.
(d) In the eighth circle of hell.

11. How does Makina characterize the places she arrives at, and keeps going to?
(a) Empty pits.
(b) Bleak tundras.
(c) Plastic crowds.
(d) Teeming cities.

12. Why is Makina surprised by the man who opens the door at the address the woman from the restaurant gave her?
(a) He does not speak English.
(b) He is a dark-skinned black man.
(c) He is not her brother.
(d) He speaks her language.

13. Whose place does Makina’s brother take in the army?
(a) An intellectually-challenged teen.
(b) A bad-tempered teen.
(c) An Anglo man.
(d) A dreamy man.

14. How does Makina’s brother indicate that he wants to leave to talk to her?
(a) He walks out and holds the door so she can follow.
(b) He tells her let’s go outside.
(c) He points out the door and follows her.
(d) He takes her arm.

15. What do Makina and her brother do before they speak when she first finds him?
(a) Cry.
(b) Run away.
(c) Stare at each other.
(d) Ponder.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Makina’s brother say typically initiated periods of activity for him and his fellow soldiers?

2. What did Makina’s brother’s first note home say?

3. What does the family do when Makina’s brother returns?

4. What does Makina do when she realizes she has made a mistake in recognizing her brother?

5. What is the advantage of a polyglot language, in Makina’s eyes?

(see the answer keys)

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