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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. The day proceeds, and most of the _________________ are bad shots.

2. What is the purpose of Armistice Day?

3. What do Grandma and Mary Alice do at the cobhouse?

4. Why is it important that the school is many miles from Mildred's house?

5. At lunch, Grandma becomes the unofficial ______________ for the burgoo.

Short Essay Questions

1. What is burgoo stew? How might this represent life during the Great Depression?

2. How does Mary Alice react to Mildred's plan for getting her dollar from Mary Alice? What does this reveal about her?

3. What is Armistice Day? What is a holiday that we have that serves a similar purpose? What is the purpose of this holiday?

4. What has happened to Mrs. Abernathy's son? Is this still seen today? Why or why not?

5. How does Grandma trick Mildred? What does this reveal about her?

6. How does Grandma raise money for Mrs. Abernathy? Is this a good tactic? Why or why not?

7. What does Mary Alice bring to Grandma's house? Why does she bring this?

8. Describe Halloween in this town. Why might it be like this?

9. How does Grandma continue to taunt the pranksters during the party? How might the pranksters feel about this?

10. What is theme is strong in this section? Support your response with information from this section.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Grandma hunts foxes to survive.

Part 1) Describe Grandma's hunting technique. Are you surprised by her decision to hunt foxes? Why or why not? How might she have come to be a fox hunter? What does this reinforce about her character?

Part 2) What is the purpose for revealing this in the story? How does this help to develop Grandma's character and her relationship with Mary Alice?

Part 3) How have other characters in this story adapted to the hard times of the Great Depression? How might you have adapted at this time to survive? What skills do you posses that would be useful?

Essay Topic 2

Mary Alice is the main character.

Part 1) Describe Mary Alice. How does she change throughout the story? Why does she change? How do other characters in this story also change? What is Mary Alice's relationship with other main characters in the story?

Part 2) Mary Alice is also the narrator of the story. How does her narration affect the knowledge of the reader? How does it also influence the reader's opinion of other characters? How different might the story be if the narrator were not a character in the story? How different might the story be if Grandma was the narrator?

Part 3) What is learned about Middle America during the Great Depression through Mary Alice's eyes? Has this affected your view of life in the 1930s? If so, how? If not, why not?

Essay Topic 3

A tornado hits the town.

Part 1) Describe the events surrounding the tornado. How did this tornado affect the citizens of this town? Why did the author have a tornado touch down in this town? What is revealed through this natural disaster?

Part 2) What other major events take place in this story? How are these events important? How do they affect the plot and the characters?

Part 3) What events have been significant in your own life? How have these events affected you? How do these events compare to the events in this story?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,121 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample