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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. What did Knights of the Order of the Bath keep an all night vigil over the day before a king's coronation?

2. What college did the author graduate from before being ordained as a minister?

3. Where did the author go to wait with a friend who got news about a family accident?

4. According to the author, about how old is the the Chapel of St. John?

5. Who bought the world and "home" back to the author each day?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the author connect his feelings to what he describes about the Tower in London?

2. How did the author's kids connect him with the outside world when they were small?

3. Besides complaints about him praying in his first class at Harvard, what other surprises did the author's students give him?

4. How did the author feel about his kids once they were older and how did this affect his life once they left home as adults?

5. What did the author expect in a Harvard teaching experience that he did not get when he actually taught at Harvard Divinity School?

6. Why did the author like having Dudley Knott as a friend?

7. How did the author translate his hotel dream into his real life?

8. How do our other selves develop as explained in Part Two of "Telling Secrets?"

9. Who is Naya?

10. When do Dudley Knott and the author become friends?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why is the author's daughter sick? How did she get well? How did the increasing wellness of his daughter, help the author to realize that he was not well? How does the author explain what happens to someone who after being sick for so long is suddenly well? How does this new "freedom" affect them?

Essay Topic 2

The author wrote "Brendan" in 1987. How does the author describe Brendan the Navigator? Why does the author say he found another saint in reference to Brendan the Navigator? How does the author use this character and another to convey his belief that we are all crippled? Through Brendan what does the author offer as a solution to help those that are crippled?

Essay Topic 3

The author's mother is quoted in Part One of the book as saying, "If I didn't have something to look for, I would be lost." Answer either A or B.

A. Why does she make this statement? Discuss the significance of the mother losing her beauty and trying to find it daily with her make-up and other enhancements, in relation to her state of mind, her health, and her relationship with her sons and her caregivers/friends.

B. Why does the author describe the statement as one of his mother's "most shimmering utterances?" How does this theme of "lost and found" play out throughout the details of the author's life described in the book - his family (mom and brother, wife and kids), friends, students?

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