Prologue–Chapter 3

Reading Check

1. In suburban Chicago (Chapter 1)

2. The ride’s machinery sets off sparks. (Chapter 1)

3. Kabul (Chapter 2)

4. Germany (Chapter 3)

Short Answer

1. Alyce Litz is an American volunteer with World Relief, an organization that helped Ahmedi immigrate from Afghanistan. Ahmedi did not feel that she had achieved anything worth writing about when she met Alyce, but Litz told Ahmedi that, given all the hardships she’s endured, simply surviving is an achievement. (Prologue)

2. After the incident, Ahmedi would dream about riding a bicycle, running around her yard in Kabul, or simply walking around. In the mornings, sometimes she began to rise from bed, but then remembered she needed to put on her prosthesis. (Chapter 1)

3. When Hussein came of age, he wanted to change the family’s fortune, so he apprenticed as a tailor in Kabul. He became a master tailor and, after several years, earned enough money to return to the village to pay off his father’s debt and to buy the land back. (Chapter 2)

4. Ahmedi says that the rocket explosions and gunfire were off in the distance, and that the occasional warplanes created captivating patterns of white smoke in the sky.