View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Toni say to Leda when he sees her at the fair?
(a) He is happy Nina has found a friend.
(b) It is nice that she has nothing to do.
(c) He asks if she is the one who stole the doll.
(d) He asks her to keep away from his wife.

2. In Chapter 19, Leda reflects on a time her professor invited her to a conference on which writer?
(a) Ernest Hemingway.
(b) E.M. Forster.
(c) T.S. Eliot.
(d) D.H. Lawrence.

3. What does Nina do in the apartment which reminds Leda of her mother and grandmother?
(a) She laughs and jokes.
(b) She hurls insults at Leda.
(c) She speaks with a gentle cadence.
(d) She cooks a Neapolitan dinner.

4. What does Nina tell Leda she wants to do after Leda returns home?
(a) Write letters to Leda.
(b) Work with Leda.
(c) Visit Leda in Florence.
(d) Move to Florence with Leda.

5. What does Leda say when Nina asks why she left her daughters?
(a) She could not stand them.
(b) She did not think she was a good mother to them.
(c) She loved them too much.
(d) Gianni kicked her out.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did Leda say to her daughters after she returned to them and they did poorly in school?

2. Why is Nina upset to learn her husband is at the fair at the start of Chapter 22?

3. What does Leda tell Nina happened to her as a mother after she returned to her daughters?

4. What does Leda tell Nina you have to do sometimes "in order not to die" (43)?

5. What does Giovanni describe, which Leda called a pupatella?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who does Nina think stole Elena's doll?

2. How did Leda treat Marta during vacation when she sought comfort from her mother when Lucilla and Bianca left her out of a game?

3. How did meeting the hitchhikers change Leda?

4. What would Lucilla do if Bianca and Marta did not want to play with her?

5. What does Leda remind Nina that she had told her when discussing what she did in the woods with Gino?

6. Who is Lucilla? How did Leda's daughters feel about Lucilla? How did Leda feel about Lucilla?

7. What does Giovanni tell Leda about this life she he brings fish to her apartment in Chapter 20?

8. In what way was Leda's first pregnancy different from her mother's and other relative's?

9. What does Leda ask Elena when she bumps into her family outside the toy store in Chapter 14? How does Elena respond? What does Rosaria say should happen to the person who took Elena's doll?

10. What was Leda reminded of while watching Nani spew brown liquid into the sink in Chapter 22?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 809 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample