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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. Which of the following colors does Leigh associate with separation from Axel?

2. As which of the following is “hao chi” glossed in the novel?

3. In which of the following does Brian lodge while Leigh is with her grandparents in Taipei?

4. Which of the following does Cheslin take to Caro’s photoshoot at the creek?

5. To which of the following does Leigh compare the game she sees old men play in the park when she goes with Waigong?

Short Essay Questions

1. What reasons does Leigh give for wanting her father to stay away from home?

2. What reasons does Leigh cite for Waigong moving slower than Waipo?

3. What prank does Axel note playing on a younger cousin at Christmas?

4. What reasons does Yuanyang have for thinking agricultural work easier than schooling?

5. What are the contents of Dorothy’s birthday gift to an eight-year-old Leigh?

6. How does Leigh apologize to Feng?

7. What reasons does Leigh cite in the summer before her sophomore year for going out with Axel and Caro?

8. What reasons does Leigh give for demurring to open the letters to her mother?

9. What reasons does Axel give for having broken up with Leanne in the winter of Leigh’s freshman year?

10. What does Axel posit would happen if art were stripped from Leigh?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Leigh notes that the first time she sees Brian cry since Dorothy’s funeral is in her grandparents’ home (57). What significance does it have that this is the case, and how is that significance put across by the novel and its contexts?

Essay Topic 2

Leigh notes that “It calms me to see everything more clearly, to note the sharp corners of the piano bench, the straightness of the curtains draping down against the window” (36)? Why might Leigh take comfort from straight, sharp edges? What in the text and in experience suggests that reason? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the epigraph from Emily Dickinson: “If I should see a single bird.” Typically, epigraphs suggest one or more of the themes of the works they introduce. Does the epigraph on The Astonishing Color of After effectively suggest one or more of the novel’s themes? If so, how? If not, what purpose does the epigraph serve, and how does it achieve it?

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