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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Lt. Gamboa say he always does when he is Officer of the Guard to pass the time in Part One, Chapter 8?
(a) He plays solitaire
(b) He watches television
(c) He studies
(d) He daydreams

2. What day of the week is it in the beginning of Part One, Chapter 8, when Lt. Gamboa prepares for field exercises?
(a) Monday
(b) Saturday
(c) Thursday
(d) Sunday

3. What character is described in Part One, Chapter 2 as “an excellent soccer player and his kick had tremendous force”?
(a) Pezoa
(b) Revilla
(c) Morte
(d) Urioste

4. By what nickname is Ricardo Arana known in the Circle?
(a) The Poet
(b) The Boa
(c) The Slave
(d) The Jaguar

5. What is the name of Pluto’s cousin that “had become the girlfriend of a boy from San Isidro,” according to the narrator of Part One, Chapter 7?
(a) Sara
(b) Marcela
(c) Rosa
(d) Carmela

6. Of the cadets at the Academy, Lt. Gamboa says in Part One, Chapter 8, “Half of them are sent here so they won’t turn out to be” what?
(a) Ladies
(b) Sissies
(c) Gangsters
(d) Momma’s boys

7. What is the name of the military academy that Cava and the other boys attend in the novel?
(a) The Admiral Farragut Academy
(b) The Leoncio Prado Military Academy
(c) The Hargrave Military Academy
(d) The School of the Americas

8. The quote that opens Part One, Chapter 1 (“We play the part of heroes because we’re cowards, the part of saints because we’re wicked”) is written by whom?
(a) Alfred, Lord Tennyson
(b) Samuel Beckett
(c) Franz Kafka
(d) Jean-Paul Sartre

9. The narrator says of Lt. Gamboa in Part One, Chapter 8, that he “loved the military life for exactly the same reasons that the others hated it.” What reasons are these?
(a) Discipline, rank, field exercises
(b) Paperwork, power, and discipline
(c) Money, power, and strength
(d) Corruption, hierarchy, and power

10. What word from Part One, Chapter 1 refers to a wild South American camelid that lives in the high alpine areas of the Andes?
(a) Vicuña
(b) Hacienda
(c) Perros
(d) Alpaca

11. What number does the Jaguar call out after the roll of dice in the opening of Part One, Chapter 1?
(a) 8
(b) 4
(c) 7
(d) 3

12. What three army noncoms follow Lt. Gamboa as he orders the cadets into line in Part One, Chapter 2?
(a) Skinny, Marcela, and Vallano
(b) Curly, the Jaguar, and the Boa
(c) Urioste, Nunez, and Revilla
(d) Varua, Morte, and Pezoa

13. What is the name of the hideout where the cadets buy pisco and cigarettes from Paulino in Part One, Chapter 5?
(a) La Brama
(b) La Cuidad
(c) Los Perros
(d) La Perlita

14. Who does the narrator say “had come to watch the lessons, and spent the whole time cracking jokes, making insinuations, mentioning Helena’s name” in Part One, Chapter 7?
(a) Pluto and Emilio
(b) Teresa and Marcela
(c) Nunez and Revilla
(d) Paulino and Urioste

15. Whose image does Alberto try to remember as he unbuttons his pants at the hideout in Part One, Chapter 5?
(a) Marcela’s
(b) Carmela’s
(c) Pretty Face’s
(d) Golden Toes’s

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does the narrator say he would go on Sundays when Teresa went to visit family in Part One, Chapter 7?

2. Curly describes an earthquake that took place in what year in Part One, Chapter 7?

3. What is the name of Alberto’s mother in the novel?

4. In what country is The Time of the Hero set?

5. What day of the week is it when Alberto returns home from the Academy in the beginning of Part One, Chapter 4?

(see the answer keys)

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