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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 does Phillip describe himself and Holly?

2. What news does Betsy bring to Father as he is waiting to leave for Nashville?

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

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

5. Who does Phillip call to meet him at the airport?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

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

3. In Chapter 12, Phillip begins calling his father on a weekly basis. Why are those calls important to Phillip?

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

5. 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?

6. When Alex arrives in Memphis in Chapter 7, he sees his father waving to him from the runway. Describe Father's behavior upon seeing Phillip. What is happening that day? How does his father appear to Phillip?

7. In Chapter 11, Phillip puts together the story of his family's intrusion into his father's love affair with Clara Price. What does he realize, and how?

8. 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?

9. 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?

10. During the drive from the church to Mr. Carver's home in Chapter 8, Phillip begins thinking of what his father might do next. What things does he think are possible? Why does he believe his father might do any of them?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Typically a four leaf clover is a symbol of good luck. In the novel, Phillip asks his mother for the four leaf clover pendant he sees on her dressing table. The pendant, however, does not bring luck to either Mother or Phillip. Discuss the pendant's history in the Carver family. How does the eventual recipient react to the pendent?

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

Are Betsy and Josephine justified in preventing Father from marrying and cloistering him in his home with their constant oversight? Defend your position.

(see the answer keys)

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