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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. How are Betsy and Josephine dressed when Phillip and Father walk into the house?

2. What do Alex, Phillip and his father see as they pull into the driveway of the house?

3. Why do the Carvers move from Thornton to Nashville?

4. How does Phillip describe himself and Holly?

5. What thing does Philip remember most clearly about the moves in his life?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 12, Phillip gives the four leaf clover pendant to Holly. How does she respond? What does Phillip know from her response?

2. While flying to Memphis in Chapter 7, Philip thinks about his course of action with his sister who he fears are planning vengeance on their father. What does Phillip want to convince the sisters to do?

3. In Chapter 11, Phillip allows Alex's car to remain in the driveway which blocks his father's car from exiting. What debate might be waging in his mind while he delays his father's departure?

4. 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?

5. In Chapter 8, how does Phillip react to his sisters' actions? How does Alex react?

6. 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?

7. 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?

8. In Chapter 9, both Phillip and Holly begin to understand their fathers and see them as people. Holly encourages them both to go beyond forgiveness and forgetting and aspire to true understanding. How does Phillip remember his father's life growing up?

9. 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?

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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Chapter 5, Phillip's mother says to him, "Don't be so hard to please, son. Sometimes the second choice is better than the first would have been." Has this proven to be true for Phillip? Is Holly, the second choice, better suited to Phillip than his first choice, Clara? Take into account all you have learned in the novel about Tennessee life, the Carver family, and Phillip himself.

Essay Topic 2

Phillip often mentions his sister's outlandish appearance and behavior in their middle age. He gives examples of their conversations in public places; their dress and accessories; their behavior with their father and others. In a way, the two sisters seem to blend into one by the end of the story. Describe the two women: who are they? How are they similar? How are they different?

Essay Topic 3

Phillip has four women in his life. In Chapter 3, he presents a picture of his two sisters, his mother, and his girlfriend, Holly. Holly stands out as notably different, even opposite, from the three women in his family. Compare and contrast these four women. What are their strengths and weaknesses? How do they relate to the men in their lives? What might Phillip find appealing about Holly?

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