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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the first thing that strikes Calvin about Alice when he sees her for the first time?
(a) Alice looks more alive than anyone he sees.
(b) Alice is so very pretty.
(c) Alice is opinionated.
(d) Alice is talkative.

2. At the end of chapter three, Calvin describes an event in Alice's life that takes her by surprise. What happens?
(a) Alice is not asked for her identification at a bar.
(b) Alice is stopped for speeding by a police officer, and receives a ticket.
(c) Alice does not remember how to get home from the plant nursery.
(d) Alice is stopped for speeding by a police officer and does not receive a ticket.

3. What disease does Alice's mother suffer from?
(a) Lung cancer.
(b) Ovarian cancer.
(c) Emphysema.
(d) Alzheimer's.

4. In what year does Alice die?
(a) 1976.
(b) 2001.
(c) 1990.
(d) 2006.

5. What is the headline in the magazine article in which Alice is featured as a model at the age of thirty-five?
(a) The picture of health.
(b) The beauty and the brain.
(c) College instructor, mother and wife.
(d) About Alice.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the headline for Alice's obituary in the Times?

2. What does Alice's father do for a living?

3. What is the first book that Calvin writes after he meets Alice?

4. According to Calvin, why does he show Alice everything he writes in rough draft?

5. Alice tells her husband that he peaks in which year?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. In chapter one, Trillin reveals that although his readers become familiar with Alice as a sensible, somewhat serious character in his books and articles, they never really know her. Why?

3. In what ways do you think Alice serves as Calvin Trillin's muse? Include characteristics that inspire his writing.

4. Chapter three contains two humorous poems about Alice. What theme do they share?

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

6. In chapter three, why does Alice accept the request to be photographed in a fashion issue of a magazine?

7. What event causes Alice to feel as though she loses her looks?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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