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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why does Freda sing Brother Timonie for her friends?
(a) To show off.
(b) To show them her funeral song.
(c) To remind them of home.
(d) To honor her father.

2. How does Beatrice answer when Aline asks how old she is?
(a) She does not answer, she only laughs.
(b) She says she is in her 50s.
(c) She says she is in her 40s.
(d) She says she is in her 60s.

3. What is Old Zo’s response when Dany asks if he knows Estina?
(a) His maternal uncle was married to Estina’s sister.
(b) His father was Estina’s close friend.
(c) His grandfather and her grandfather were cousins.
(d) His mother is descended from her maternal grandmother’s family.

4. Why does Beatrice say she enjoyed making wedding dresses?
(a) Because she liked keeping up the tradition her grandmother started.
(b) Because when everyone looked at the dress, they saw her.
(c) Because it allowed her to act like a mother to so many girls.
(d) Because she was proud of her work in the community.

5. When did Estina lose her eyesight?
(a) The night Dany’s parents were killed.
(b) In an attack by macoutes.
(c) At birth.
(d) In a protest in Port-au-Prince.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Dany have to make excuses when he sees people in his aunt’s town?

2. What does Mariselle say President Kennedy’s widow Jacky Kennedy did to sadness?

3. How old is Michel in story told in the "Monkey Tails" chapter?

4. What condition does Freda say her father was in when he came back after time in prison?

5. What is the mob doing to people it captures?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Freda emigrate from Haiti to the U.S.?

2. What is the action that takes place at Monsieur Christophe’s water station during the rioting?

3. Who is the main character of the "Monkey Tails" chapter, and where is it set?

4. Under what conditions did Freda’s father disappear?

5. Who is Michel’s father, and who is Romain’s?

6. Why does Michel say he understood things he should have been too young to understand?

7. What does Beatrice ultimately tell us about the character of Ka’s father?

8. What are the three deaths Freda’s mother says all people have?

9. What kind of insight does Aline give us into the authorial labor of writing the novel in which Aline herself appears?

10. Why does Dany think that Claude is lucky?

(see the answer keys)

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