View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Holly react to Phillip's gift?

2. Where does Mr. Carver always buy his hats?

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

4. What do Holly and Phillip decide to do with their inheritances?

5. How does Lewis Shackleford view Mr. Carver?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 8, Alex, Phillip and Father pull up to the house from the church. What is happening as they arrive? Why?

2. While at Sunday supper with his family at Owl Mountain in Chapter 11, Phillip sees both Clara Price and Lewis Shackleford in the dining room. How does Phillip react to both of these important people?

3. In Chapter 8, Betsy and Josephine have prepared a bed for Phillip in their father's study. However, Phillip does not stay. He leaves his father and sisters and returns to New York. Why does he not remain and defend his father against his sisters? Why does Phillip leave so hastily?

4. 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?

5. At the end of Chapter 12, what does the reader know about all of the main characters?

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

7. What is Betsy's stated reason for Father not going to see Lewis Shackleford in Chapter 11? What is the real reason?

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

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

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Phillip realizes his father did not consider how the move to Memphis would affect all members of the family. Was the move to Memphis the only thing to affect the Carvers? Was there another factor at play, one much more dramatic than the move, that actually changed the course of everyone's lives?

Essay Topic 2

Phillip's long term relationship with Holly Kaplan is the only successful love relationship the adult Carver siblings have. Why do you think this is? How does his father's influence in his romance with Clara Price compare to that of his of Betsy and Josephine's? Why has Phillip's father not meddled in the relationship between Holly and Phillip?

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,269 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample