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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Nathan reading that angers Ruth so much she storms off from the living room?
(a) Ariel's obituary.
(b) A book about fishing.
(c) A book about the psychology of grief.
(d) The Bible.

2. Upon leaving their grandfather's house and starting to walk home, Jake suddenly stops in the middle of the road. What reason does he give for stopping?
(a) He cannot stop thinking about how much he wants Ariel back.
(b) He is having a vision of Ariel coming to tell him something.
(c) He feels like he is going to throw up.
(d) He has realized that he left the bonus from their grandfather on the back of the toilet.

3. What kind of weekly appointment does Jake have in Mankato?
(a) An orthodontist appointment.
(b) A speech therapy appointment.
(c) A medical appointment.
(d) A psychiatry appointment.

4. What plan does Frank have in order to find out what is happening between Nathan and Ruth when Nathan goes to fetch her from Emil's house?
(a) He plans to linger at Emil's after their conversation and to ask Ruth point-blank what she and Nathan have discussed.
(b) He plans to hide underneath a nearby window so that he can overhear the conversation.
(c) He plans to send Jake to Emil's house under the guise of helping Lise but actually to eavesdrop on their parents.
(d) He plans to plant a tape recorder in Emil's living room before Nathan arrives.

5. What does Ruth do while Nathan is at the funeral home making the arrangements for Ariel's funeral service?
(a) She sits in her bedroom and cries.
(b) She sits in the basement with all of the lights off.
(c) She sits on the porch in her housecoat and slippers, smoking cigarettes.
(d) She sits at the kitchen table, writing Ariel's eulogy.

Short Answer Questions

1. What job is Gus performing when Frank and Jake find him at the cemetery?

2. Who answers the door when Frank and Jake knock on the O'Keefes' door?

3. When Karl apologizes to Nathan, for what transgression does he apologize?

4. What is Warren Redstone's explanation for his possession of Ariel's piece of jewelry?

5. In addition to the revelation about Ariel's pregnant state at the time of her death, what is the other reason the sheriff cites for Karl moving to the top of the murder suspect list?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Frank and Jake try to overhear yet another conversation at Emil's and Lise's house, their plan is thwarted. What is the cause of their plan failing?

2. In what ways are the complicated nature of the grief cycle demonstrated to the reader through the experiences of Frank and Jake?

3. Why is it ironic that Ruth refuses to attend the New Bremen church service at which Nathan preaches right after Ariel's dead body is found?

4. What is the cause of Lise's heightened anxiety and frantic behavior when Nathan goes to Emil's house to talk to Ruth?

5. What is the significance of how Frank spends the money he has been saving up from the yard work he does for his grandfather?

6. How do the themes of racism and larger injustice surface in the aftermath of Ariel's disappearance?

7. What secret does Karl finally reveal to Nathan that makes it fairly clear that he had no hand in Ariel's murder?

8. Who acts as the go-between, bringing news back and forth between the police station and the Drum family and how does this role fit the character's relationship to the family?

9. How does Nathan's sermon affect Frank?

10. Why is Frank so surprised to see Ruth and Gus sitting together at the kitchen table when he and the rest of the family return from Sibley Park?

(see the answer keys)

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