View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Calvin portray his wife Alice in books and magazine articles written before she dies?
(a) The goofball.
(b) The cancer victim.
(c) The voice of reason.
(d) The wicked witch.

2. Where does Alice spend her childhood?
(a) Alice grows up in Greenhaven and Harrison, New York.
(b) Alice grows up in Greenwich and Nova Scotia.
(c) Alice grows up in North Carolina and Long Island.
(d) Alice grows up in New York City and New Jersey.

3. What is the name of the magazine that hosts the party where Calvin first meets Alice?
(a) Life.
(b) Monocle.
(c) The New Yorker.
(d) Times Magazine.

4. How old is Alice when she is asked to be photographed by Doug Kirkland and model spring fashions in a magazine?
(a) Fifty.
(b) Twenty-two.
(c) Thirty-five.
(d) Nineteen.

5. In chapter one, Calvin includes an excerpt from a letter that Alice writes to a woman who is victimized. What Shakespeare play does she reference in her letter?
(a) Macbeth.
(b) Hamlet.
(c) Romeo and Juliet.
(d) King Lear.

Short Answer Questions

1. What reasons does Calvin give for stating that "Alice doesn't look like who she is"?

2. Where does Alice's father first meet Alice's mother?

3. Calvin claims that the first time he sees Alice, he detects what quality about her heritage?

4. What disease does Alice's mother suffer from?

5. According to Calvin, what does Alice exclaim when encountering a deer in a forest?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are some of the adversities Alice faces throughout her life?

2. In what ways is Alice's beauty a hardship?

3. In chapter two, Calvin Trillin reveals that he never stops trying to impress his wife Alice. Give an example of this.

4. Does Alice believe she is accurately portrayed in Trillin's books and articles? Briefly describe why or why not.

5. In chapter one, Calvin Trillin states that the stories he writes about his family can be compared what kinds of television shows?

6. Calvin Trillin states that from the day he meets Alice, he never stops trying to impress her. Why?

7. In what ways are Alice's looks, coupled with the superficial facts about her background, misleading?

8. What is one positive quality that Alice inherits from her father? Why do you think this quality is especially beneficial to Alice?

9. In chapter two, Calvin Trillin draws a parallel in the relationship between the novelist Dick Francis and his late wife Mary and Trillin's own marriage to Alice. Explain.

10. In chapter three, Calvin Trillin explains that Alice's role as caretaker to her parents has a positive impact on her life. How?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,066 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample