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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. During what season does the book open?

2. What did Helen say she had always wanted to do?

3. When did Helen have to return to work?

4. What physical state was Jacques Plessis in when he found the Hoovers' cabin?

5. What month was it when Helen and Adrian Hoover discovered this news about the retirement check?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did the sheriff decide about the car accident?

2. What happened to give the Hoovers an excuse to spend a long time in the cabin?

3. What were the Hoovers' positions before the moved to the cabin?

4. What opportunity did the Hoovers see in the basement?

5. Describe the first cabin the Hoovers bought.

6. What happened to the cabin during the rainstorm?

7. What did Hilda and Sven say when they left for the season?

8. Who are the Larimers, and what did the Hoovers have to do with them?

9. Describe the mice the Hoovers found.

10. What stress did the moving truck present Helen and Adrian Hoover with?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

To what degree is this book internally consistent? How much does it follow the rules it lays out? Where does it break from its own logic or skip over things that you would think should be covered?

Essay Topic 2

What was the Hoovers' relation with the local people? Were they like settlers, taking land from the locals? Or were they refugees displaced from the city to the country? Were they returning home in some way?

Essay Topic 3

What were the political and cultural contexts for the Hoovers' flight to the woods? What was going on when they were taking off? How were other people expressing the desire to live in a different society?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 655 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample