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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 floor does Laura live on?

2. How many students were in Laura's class at the village school?

3. How did Laura hurt her leg?

4. What books did Angela like to read?

5. In Chapter 9, who is waiting at the bookshop when Miriam arrives?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Irene glad to have Angela's books?

2. What does Carla remember about Ben's third birthday?

3. What does Laura remember about being with Daniel?

4. What does Theo tell the police that he saw Saturday morning?

5. How did Carla and Theo's son Ben die?

6. How was Laura injured?

7. What conversation does Laura have with her mother when she calls her in Chapter 8?

8. What does Miriam do every second Sunday?

9. What did Miriam take from the boat where the young man died?

10. What is Irene's favrorite reading spot and why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Idioms are words that have a figurative, rather than a literal meaning. How does the author use idioms in the book? Why are the idioms sometimes difficult to understand? Why do the idioms often require research to understand their meaning? Why are some idioms in the book difficult for an American audience to understand?

Essay Topic 2

Irene knows that people like Carla look at little old ladies like her and dismiss them as dim, distracted, forgetful, and foolish. Is Irene old? How do people tend to dismiss her because of her age? What do people assume about her because of her age? Why is Irene the target of ageism?

Essay Topic 3

The setting in a book is the place or places where the action takes place. Where does A Slow Fire Burning take place? Is the setting simply a backdrop to the story and characters or does it take on the role of a character?

(see the answer keys)

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