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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. How does Margolius feel about his work for the Communist Party?

2. What is clear about Communism in Czechoslovakia by the end of 1949?

3. What does Kovály find out about her friends when she returns to Prague?

4. In which country is the ghetto that Kovály and her family are taken located?

5. What happens to Kovály's mother on arrival at the concentration camp?

Short Essay Questions

1. What response does Kovály get when she asks her friends in Prague for help?

2. Of what does Kovály discover the politicians wives are fearful?

3. What is life like for Kovály as a slave laborer at Auschwitz?

4. What happens as Kovály and her friends make their escape from the barn where the camp inmates are staying?

5. By the time Margolius is arrested, how many citizens in total had been taken into custody, and what often happened to the families of arrested individuals?

6. How does Kovály keep up to date with Margolius' trial when she is in the hospital?

7. What minor miracle does Bartos achieve for Kovály which enabled her to visit a hospital?

8. What brought the war to a conclusion for Kovály personally?

9. What is Kovály's last meeting with Margolius like?

10. What event does Margolius and Kovály attend in 1950, and who greeted them there?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the Holocaust. How is it portrayed in "Under A Cruel Star"? What is the Holocaust and why does it occur? What is Hitler's role in this horrific chapter in human history?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the portrayal of the Nazi concentration camps in "Under A Cruel Star." What are some anecdotes that Kovály shares with the reader? What is Kovály's personal experience in the concentration camps like? How does she overcome this trying period in her life?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the genre of "Under A Cruel Star." What elements can be found within its pages to suggest it is an example of this genre?

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