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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. Where does Ian take his parents at Sumner College?

2. Who visits Agatha and Thomas with a picnic basket of fried chicken and chocolate cake while their mother naps?

3. What does Doug Bedloe teach at the high school?

4. What story does Ian read to Agatha and Thomas at the Bedloe house after Lucy has died?

5. How old is Sister Audrey?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the setting for the Church's indoor picnic?

2. How do Ian's suspicions about Lucy's behavior influence Danny's death?

3. Explain Ian's reasons for sending the children to Second Chance Day Camp.

4. How does Doug get involved with the foreigners on Waverly Street?

5. What does Doug Bedloe do to find Agatha and Thomas' father?

6. Explain how Agatha tries to care for her baby sister, Daphne.

7. Why is Doug Bedloe bored with retirement?

8. Explain how Reverend Emmett founded The Church of the Second Chance.

9. How does Claudia try to help her mother?

10. Why is Lucy taking pills and sleeping all the time?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What role does food play in the novel, especially as it relates to the Bedloe family holiday meals? Discuss how particular recipes are linked to family memories and why this is important.

Essay Topic 2

Daphne calls Ian Saint Maybe and Mr. Cautious. Explain how you see the truth of these labels in Ian's actions and demeanor. Do you think he changes as the story unfolds? Describe one experience later in the novel where he is not a Saint Maybe.

Essay Topic 3

Bee says "We've had such extraordinary troubles...and somehow they've turned us ordinary. That's what so hard to figure. We're not a special family anymore." Discuss how Bee saw her family as special before Danny's death, and why she believes they are ordinary afterwards. Do you agree or disagree with Bee's comment? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 913 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample