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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 Ben play with during his first session of the new year?

2. What surprises Annie about Dr. Blumenfeld?

3. Annie visits a university where she feels as if she is at home. Which university is this?

4. With what disorder is Ben diagnosed?

5. What does Annie hope Ben is doing Christmas night?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is it about the letter from Dr. Connelly that upsets Annie so badly?

2. In what way is the bird that Ben paints connected with the bird that Annie paints?

3. What does Annie feel that the doctor who examines her at the hospital is trying to do?

4. Why do you believe Ben refuses to see Annie for three weeks during their sessions?

5. When Annie researched Ben's past, what did she find out about his first foster home?

6. How does Annie interpret her first session with Ben after the Christmas break?

7. What does Dr. Connelly warn Annie to stay away from when he releases her from the hospital?

8. What feeling does Annie have both when she leaves Harvard and when she leaves her birthday party at Sarah's apartment?

9. How does Annie convince Ben that she will met with him again after Christmas break?

10. What does Annie's act of sewing up the wound over Ben's heart symbolize?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Angels are a recurring symbol in this book. Locate at least five references to angels. Describe the meaning of these references. How do they tie together?

Essay Topic 2

Goodbyes and the effect these goodbyes can have on people is a major theme of Annie's novel. Ben struggles with his abandonment by both his birth mother and his first set of foster parents. Annie, meanwhile, is devastated by her father's suicide and her parents' disappearance when she was a small child in the hospital as well as an abandonment by her therapist, Melanie. Discuss the way in which Annie builds upon her own lost relationships in order to make her parting with Ben as painless for Ben as possible. Discuss also Annie's hurt from her own badly ended relationship with her therapist. In what ways does Blumenfeld help Annie to heal from this traumatic ending?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the second section of Annie's novel entitled "Silence." How does Annie use her writing in this section of the novel to allow readers to understand what is going on in her mind? Compare and contrast Annie's writing style in this section of the novel with her writing style in the other sections of the novel. Use specific examples from the text to support the points that you make in describing the writing styles of each section of the novel.

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