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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How do the Shacklefords greet the Carvers when they arrive in Nashville?
(a) They say hello and send them to their new home.
(b) They are not home when the Carvers arrive.
(c) They welcome them and insist they spend the night.
(d) They are angry at being awakened in the middle of the night.

2. What did Holly imagine she would do when she leaves Cleveland and moves to New York fifteen years before?
(a) Become a tenured professor at NYU.
(b) Write a best selling novel.
(c) Have a high powered literary career.
(d) Get an advanced degree in English.

3. What does Phillip know about Alex Mercer after Mr. Carver dies?
(a) Alex is dealing with his two aging parents.
(b) Alex lives in Memphis and is chair of the department.
(c) Nothing; the two have not been in contact.
(d) Alex and his family moved to Nashville.

4. What does Holly encourage Phillip to focus on in his family?
(a) Go with her to Cleveland to see her father.
(b) Try seeing his father in such a way as to understand him as a human being.
(c) Try confronting his father about all of his anger.
(d) Hold a family meeting and demand Father's release from his house.

5. Where do Alex, Phillip and Mr. Carver go after leaving the church?
(a) To the airport.
(b) To Alex's house.
(c) To a neighborhood bar for a beer.
(d) Back to Mr. Carver's home.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Phillip describe himself and Holly?

2. How does Lewis Shackleford view Mr. Carver?

3. What does Mr. Carver say to Alex and Phillip after speaking with the minister?

4. With whom does Mrs. Carver spend much of her time on the Saturday outings?

5. How does Phillip feel about his father before the man dies the following spring?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 9, Phillip gives us a glimpse of Holly's life. How do we learn about Holly and how she fits into her family?

2. In Chapter 7, Phillip compares the life he knows in his father's house in Memphis and his apartment in New York. How do the two residences differ? How does Phillip feel about the contents of his family home in Memphis and the contents of his apartment?

3. In Chapter 10, Phillip comes to a realization about his father and the move to Memphis. What does he decide regarding his father's move with the family to a new city to begin again?

4. While George Carver and his wife are in St, Louis for business, what happens to the Mr. Shackleford's company? How does Mr. Carver react to this news?

5. In Chapter 9, Phillip explains the difference between his father and Alex Mercer as an important factor in their friendship. What is this difference?

6. In Chapter 10, how does Lewis Shackleford see his friend, George Carver? What traits does he admire in his friend?

7. In Chapter 7, what happens at the church? How does Mr. Carver react to the news? What does he say to Alex and Phillip?

8. In Chapter 9, Phillip visits Holly in her apartment in the hopes of a reconciliation. What do the two of them talk about for the first time openly and honestly? What has happened in Holly's life during their separation?

9. In Chapter 10, why does George Carver move the family to Nashville when Phillip is five years old? Where does the family live? How does he establish himself and his family in town?

10. When Mr. Carver dies in Chapter 12, Holly's father also dies. The two of them return to New York after the funerals, and continue their lives together there. Phillip describes them both as "serenely free spirits." What has caused him to characterize himself and Holly in this way?

(see the answer keys)

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