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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. Who is the narrator of the story who begins the story by describing the setting where they grew up?

2. What is the task Ginny is trying to accomplish, one that takes her until noon that morning?

3. Ginny cannot think of ________ without thinking of her room, which she cannot think of without thinking of her father.

4. Where had Ginny and Rose created their own little world when they were children in order to entertain each other?

5. Rose announces she has already fed Larry and that he was ________ because they allowed it.

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Ginny run back home on her way to feed her father one morning?

2. What happens to Ginny after she cleans the carpet in her house, a task which takes her until noon?

3. When Larry arrived at Harold's, wet from the storm, what did he demand before asking for dry clothes?

4. What does Ginny drive Rose to and what is the outcome of this trip they take together?

5. When Ginny takes her nieces to the swimming pool, what do they complain about to her?

6. What happens to the kitchen cabinets that Larry purchases, even though he doesn't need them?

7. What kind of sermon does Henry Dodge give during the service in which Rose and Ginny are helping?

8. Describe the way that Marv Carlson, the banker, eats when he arrives at Larry's house the morning after the pig roast.

9. What does Ginny do in order to try to catch a glance of Jess Clark again?

10. What does Harold publicly denounce Ginny and Rose for doing to Larry?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The rigidity of Larry in the beginning of the story strikes a reader as odd, though perhaps just something that is inherent to his temperament.

Part 1: Why do you think Larry is so rigid about his schedule?

Part 2: Why are Larry's daughters keen to helping Larry adhere to his rigid schedule?

Part 3: What happens when Larry's schedule is not followed? Does this mean his schedule was to blame or some other factor?

Essay Topic 2

Rose seems to have a very simple way of dealing with the abuse of her father, but Ginny wants to go deeper with the explanation.

Part 1: What do you think of Rose's explanation that Larry did what he did because he could?

Part 2: What do you think of Ginny's quest to learn more about Larry's motivations to abuse them?

Part 3: Do you think Rose can ever come to peace with her past in the limited explanation she has accepted? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Between Rose's cancer and Ginny's infertility, it seems that maybe there is a genetic or environmental issue at work that might be harming these women.

Part 1: Do you think the farm's chemicals are what are causing the troubles for the women in this story? Why or why not?

Part 2: What does it say about these women that they don't leave, even though the environment might be making them sick?

Part 3: What does it say about Caroline that she is the 'well one' and she left the farm? Should the others have left the farm as well?

(see the answer keys)

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