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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 does Alice note about a bride she sees on the street?

2. Howard and the girls move into a townhouse at _____________________.

3. What does the judge order both sides in the trial to avoid mentioning?

4. Why does Howard collect rocks from the fields?

5. Howard concentrates on the life cycles of __________________.

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Theresa's response to Alice's arrest and what role will she probably play in Alice's defense?

2. Describe Theresa's last night with Howard and the girls.

3. What is the story about a dog and a tangled leash that recurs throughout the novel?

4. How is the Goodwin family's life in the apartment radically different from the farm where they belong?

5. What happens after Howard and the girls leave the jail and what does Howard bring up in a letter he writes to Alice?

6. How does Theresa add comfort to the lives of Howard and the girls at the same time that the farm is dying?

7. How does the sale of the farm affect both Howard and Alice?

8. What is happening in the Goodwin's lives that starts to let them feel normal again?

9. What are Alice's thoughts about religion as she is locked up?

10. How does Alice refer to her map of the world while describing her jail experience?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the overall setting for the novel. Why does Hamilton use the setting she does? What is the time period of the story? How important is the time period to the attitudes and issues of the characters?

Essay Topic 2

Project into the future ten years and write a brief synopsis for the lives of Howard and Alice and Theresa and Dan. Be sure to include emotional states as well as physical characteristics, geographic locations, work, socialization, and other life-defining features.

Essay Topic 3

Create a brief character study of Alice. What does she look like? What are her positive personality traits? What are some of her negative characteristics? What are her hopes and fears? What motivates her--if anything--at this point?

(see the answer keys)

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