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100 pages 3 hours read

Meg Medina

Merci Suárez Changes Gears

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018

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Exam Questions

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Which character’s traditionally pretty looks and family wealth make it easy for her to intimidate Merci?

A) Lena

B) Ana

C) Alexa

D) Edna

2. In which setting does Merci feel the most uncomfortable and out of place?

A) Her own home

B) Abuela and Lolo’s house

C) Seaward Pines

D) El Caribe

3. Which character is most sympathetic toward Merci?

A) Rachel

B) Jamie

C) Carlee

D) Hannah

4. For most of the novel, what is the best description of Merci’s reactions to the pressures in her family life?

A) Accepting and mature

B) Confused and angry

C) Hurt and withdrawn

D) Cheerful and helpful

5. What is one important way that Merci changes by the end of the novel?

A) She gains confidence in her own strengths.

B) She learns to be compassionate and tolerant.

C) She becomes more willing to listen to others’ opinions.

D) She learns the value of hard work and persistence.

6. Besides growing more confused, how does Lolo’s behavior change as the novel progresses?

A) He becomes more insecure and childlike.

B) He becomes more relaxed and easygoing.

C) He becomes angrier and more aggressive.

D) He becomes quieter and more depressed.

7. What causes Roli to finally tell Merci the truth about Lolo’s illness?

A) Lolo wandering off on the beach

B) Lolo confusing Merci with Inés

C) Grand’s Day

D) The car accident

8. Which incident most clearly shows that sometimes adults do not show much consideration for children’s feelings?

A) Merci’s mother’s attitude about Merci not trying out for soccer

B) Lolo’s conversation with Merci about people being like cookies

C) Merci’s mother sending Roli to talk to Merci about school

D) Merci’s father’s reliance on Merci to play for his soccer team

9. Which of these most clearly shows that the novel is communicating something about race and class in America?

A) Merci’s feelings about her assigned Sunshine Buddy

B) Merci’s experiences at Carlee Frackas’s house

C) Merci’s confusion about Michael’s romantic interest in Edna

D) Merci’s pride in her soccer-playing abilities

10. What does the gift of the bike at the end of the novel show about Merci’s family?

A) They realize that they have been trying to push Merci to grow up too quickly and that they have to let her be a child.

B) Merci’s brush with death in the car accident has frightened the family into treating her more kindly.

C) Although they are sometimes distracted by their own troubles, they genuinely love Merci and want her to be happy.

D) Now that Roli is leaving for college, it is clearer to the family that Merci is also special, in her own way.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. How does Merci’s family break one of its own most important rules in the way they handle Lolo’s illness?

2. How does Merci’s use of her camera show how she is maturing and viewing her family differently as the novel progresses?

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