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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 old were Joan's children at the beginning of the book?

2. What did Joan's husband think when Joan made an angel in the snow?

3. In Chapter 2, The Call of the Seal, what time do the birds begin chattering in the morning at Joan's cottage?

4. Where was Joan's husband sent to live at age twelve?

5. In Chapter 6, Waves of Truth, how many years had passed since Joan's sons had spent Christmas with her?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was Joan's husband's childhood like, and how did his childhood experiences affect the couple's marriage?

2. How did Joan's husband respond to her day with the seals and what does his response indicate about their marriage?

3. What is ebb tide and how did Joan relate the concept of ebb tide to her own life?

4. What kind of Christmas tree did Joan and her husband have on Cape Cod, and how did they decorate?

5. What was ironic about how Joan felt once her husband drove away from their house on the day they separated?

6. What costume did Joan wear for the New Year's Eve footrace, and what did it symbolize to her?

7. How did Joan fare in the footrace in Chapter 8, Getting My Feet Wet, and what did the race symbolize to her?

8. Why did Joan and her husband decide to separate?

9. In Chapter 4, Riptide, how did Joan relate the state of her marriage to a riptide?

10. In Chapter 6, Waves of Truth, why did Joan get angry at the fish market customer who looked like Santa Claus?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Joan Anderson's relationship with Joan Erickson. What did Joan learn from the older woman? In what ways were the women similar, and in what ways were they different? Cite examples from the text to support your arguments.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the depiction of gender roles in "A Year by the Sea." What characteristics and roles were ascribed to women in the book? What characteristics and roles were ascribed to men in the book? Did the men in the fishing community of Cape Cod treat the women as equals, or did they try to dominate them? Did Joan's husband treat Joan as an equal prior to their year-long separation, or did he try to dominate her? Cite at least three examples from the text to support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the importance of the seal island to Joan. What lessons did she learn from the island and the seals that inhabit it? Why did her husband not understand the importance of the island to her? Cite examples from the text to support your arguments.

(see the answer keys)

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