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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. How does Marlee cut her finger when she and Judy go to the rock crusher?

2. What does Marlee routinely do to try to calm herself when she is anxious?

3. Where do Marlee and Liz meet for the first time after Liz is forced to leave school?

4. Who is the boy who asks Marlee for help with his math homework?

5. How does Liz decide to give Marlee her phone number so no one but they will know what it is?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Marlee's parents react when they find out that Liz had been passing?

2. How does Marlee find the courage to get up in front of the class to do her presentation even though Liz is not there?

3. How does Liz give Marlee her phone number so only Marlee will know what it is?

4. Why does Marlee decide to stay in Mr. Harding's room instead of going to the cafeteria for lunch after Liz leaves school?

5. What does Marlee discover her new math teacher, Mr. Harding, does differently than her previous math teacher on her first day of school?

6. Why do Marlee's parents tell Judy and Marlee that Judy has to move to their grandmother's house in Pine Bluff?

7. What does Ms. Taylor tell Marlee about the reason that Liz is not at school on the day they are supposed to present their history project?

8. How does Liz act when the colored students walk into the library where she and Marlee are preparing for their history project?

9. What does Marlee notice about the scientists she sees on T.V. who are involved in space exploration?

10. When Governor Faubus orders the schools in Little Rock to close, how do Marlee's parents react to the news?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When pro-segregation protesters rallied against integration in Little Rock in 1958, Marlee's father remembers that they caused terrible disruption and fear, largely because the local police did not deter or arrest them. But in 1959, Marlee and her father witness the police responding much more effectively to the segregationists, making many arrests and clearing the streets (286). Write an essay exploring why Levine chose to close the book with this scene and the tone she was likely trying to convey in doing so.

Essay Topic 2

Although she is a minor character, JT's mother, Mrs. Dalton, has the most to lose from her involvement in the WEC (Women's Emergency Committee to Re-open Our Schools). Write an essay analyzing why Mrs. Dalton chooses to get involved on the more pro-integration side of the debate and the impact her choice to let Marlee open Red's trunk in chapter 54 has on the novel's resolution.

Essay Topic 3

When Marlee and Liz are attempting to preserve their friendship despite the fact that Marlee is white and Liz is a Negro, their parents and everyone they know in the community forbids it. Write an essay exploring the reasons, as described by Levine in the novel, why people were so against a friendship like theirs in Little Rock in the late 1950s.

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