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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Francis characterize his mother?
(a) She only came to life when she was married.
(b) She was always being killed.
(c) She died when she had sex.
(d) She had been dead all her life.

2. How much does Francis take in pay from Rosskam?
(a) $5.75.
(b) $3.75.
(c) $7.75.
(d) $5.25.

3. What does Francis say kept him sane?
(a) The open country.
(b) Baseball.
(c) Alcohol.
(d) Flight.

4. How did Skippy Maguire ruin his hand?
(a) By playing when it was injured.
(b) By punching a window.
(c) By barehanding a line drive.
(d) By grabbing hot coals in the fire.

5. Where did Helen plan to go after Vassar?
(a) New York.
(b) Paris.
(c) Chicago.
(d) London.

6. What does Helen say is her lucky star?
(a) Venus.
(b) God.
(c) The North Star.
(d) Mercury.

7. What does Francis say was his mother’s attitude toward sex?
(a) Abhorrence.
(b) Sensuality.
(c) Respect.
(d) Longing.

8. What does Francis say his mother tried to do to the neighbors’ property?
(a) Poison their dog.
(b) Break their windows.
(c) Wall out their noise.
(d) Kill their tree.

9. Who does Fiddler Quain tell Francis he’ll have to forgive?
(a) His baby for falling.
(b) His traitorous hands.
(c) Harold Allen.
(d) Himself.

10. What reason does Helen give, for abdicating from life?
(a) For illness.
(b) For love.
(c) For exhaustion.
(d) For lack of curiosity.

11. What does the narrator say the clouds resemble, when Francis is standing in the junkyard doorway?
(a) Flying dirty socks.
(b) Vicious dogs.
(c) Mists from an alcoholic’s breath.
(d) Snowmen.

12. Why was Billy in trouble with the politicians?
(a) They thought that he was getting his father to vote against them twenty times.
(b) They thought he was stealing from them.
(c) They thought he was in cahoots with kidnappers.
(d) They thought he was rigging the card games he ran.

13. Why had Helen turned down a sandwich at Jack and Clara’s?
(a) She knew that Jack and Clara could barely afford food themselves.
(b) She cannot eat because of her tumor.
(c) She was ashamed of herself.
(d) She was too proud to take food from them.

14. Why does Francis say he never committed suicide?
(a) He was deathly afraid of being alone forever in the cemetery.
(b) He knew that no one would say prayers for him in death.
(c) He was too busy trying to figure out how to live.
(d) He was always afraid of hell.

15. How does Helen characterize her relationship with Arthur?
(a) He squandered her wealth.
(b) He kept her prisoner.
(c) He introduced her to herself.
(d) He set her free.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Francis characterize his ability to atone for the past?

2. What does Francis imagine when Rosskam stops his wagon in Chapter 4?

3. What is William Kennedy using when he says that Helen’s money is the last twelve dollars of her life?

4. What does Francis say he connects scars to?

5. What does Francis say he wants from his visit to Annie in Chapter 6?

(see the answer keys)

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