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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 reasons does Calvin give for stating that "Alice doesn't look like who she is"?
(a) Alice looks like a dietitian, but in actuality she is a talented writer.
(b) Alice is seriously pampered and snooty in high school.
(c) Alice is not pampered or snooty, despite the fact that she grows up in an affluent town and attends a prestigious college.
(d) Alice is known as the class beauty and most popular cheerleader in high school.

2. Where does Alice attend college?
(a) New York University.
(b) Wellesley College.
(c) Hofstra University.
(d) City University of New York.

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

4. In what month and year does Calvin first meet Alice?
(a) December 1976.
(b) August 1990.
(c) April 1965.
(d) December 1963.

5. Where does Alice's father grow up?
(a) New York's Westchester County.
(b) New York City.
(c) Rural North Carolina.
(d) Nova Scotia.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what year does Alice die?

2. What is the first thing that strikes Calvin about Alice when he sees her for the first time?

3. In chapter three, Calvin includes a quote from a friend of Alice who speaks at her memorial service. Who is this person?

4. In chapter two, what fact about Dick Francis and his wife does Calvin share with the reader?

5. According to Calvin, what leads to his success in courting Alice?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. In chapter one, the reader learns that there is one condolence letter that makes Calvin Trillin laugh. Why?

4. When Calvin Trillin describes the first time he sees Alice in chapter two, what does he say is the first thing that strikes him about her? Is it simply her attractiveness, or something else?

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

6. Describe Calvin Trillin's father-in-law.

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

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

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

10. 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.

(see the answer keys)

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