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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. What was the title of Hyeonseo's favorite song and is also the title of Chapter 10 of her memoir?
(a) Come to Me.
(b) Rocky Island.
(c) Jailhouse Rock.
(d) Gangnam Style.

2. What does seo mean in Korean?
(a) Smile.
(b) Good fortune.
(c) Health.
(d) Wealth.

3. For North Korean citizens, joining the Young Pioneer Corps is compulsory in the years between what two ages?
(a) 10-16.
(b) 6-12.
(c) 9-14.
(d) 8-18.

4. What does hyeon mean in Korean?
(a) Sunshine.
(b) Good fortune.
(c) Wealth.
(d) Smile.

5. At what age does Hyeonseo first visit South Korea?
(a) 28.
(b) 14.
(c) 32.
(d) 20.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Hyeonseo's mother carry a candle to the door when meeting Hyeonseo's future father and her future husband for the second time?

2. What location in Hyesan did Hyeonseo name as a "common site for public executions" (73)?

3. What was NOT a characteristic of the special class Hyeonseo began taking when she was 15?

4. When Hyeonseo heard the news that some local young women had been caught listening to South Korean pop music, what was their allocated punishment?

5. What document does a North Korean citizen need in order to even leave their local county?

Short Essay Questions

1. What beliefs about Chinese people does Hyeonseo say are taught to every North Korean child?

2. What major world event does Hyeonseo say she and other North Koreans were completely ignorant of in the 1990s?

3. What are the two types of prison in the gulag?

4. What does Hyeonseo mean when she tells the reader, "We were now living in a sensitive area, politically," in relation to the family's home in Hyesan (59)?

5. What major rite of passage within North Korea's culture does Hyeonseo undergo when she is 14 years old?

6. What does the author claim is ironic about North Korea's beginnings as a communist state?

7. How does Hyeonseo interpret the fortune-teller's announcement that Hyeonseo will have "a future connected with music" and will "eat foreign rice" (43)?

8. How is Hyeonseo's mother's devotion to Hyeonseo's father demonstrated in the scene when Hyeonseo's father does not return on time from his business trip to China?

9. Where is Hyeonseo's family's new house in Hyesan located after they move back from Anju?

10. What is the "only permitted outlet for spiritual fervor" (41) in North Korea and what does the author say is the punishment for seeking out different means of spirituality?

(see the answer keys)

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