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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. What religion did Alice convert to during World War I after a vision?

2. What have Kathleen and Ruby been in charge of at school?

3. Where do the Lennoxes and Ropers go on their holiday in 1964?

4. Who dies at the end of 1963?

5. What startling sight does Ruby see out the car window as they leave the Scottish farmhouse?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Ruby do for a living?

2. What happens on Shrove Tuesday?

3. How does Ruby discover she had a twin sister?

4. Why does Bunty abandon the ironing so suddenly the night of the fire?

5. What happens to Rags during Chapter Nine?

6. Why does Tom usually visit his sisters without his wife?

7. How does Pearl die?

8. What memory of Lawrence's is revealed in Footnote (xii)?

9. What happens at the Chinese restaurant?

10. What is the reaction Patricia and Ruby have to seeing Gillian's headstone?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Atkinson use secrets to develop her story? What commentary is she making?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the significance of two of these family heirlooms: the silver locket, the clock, the rabbit's foot, the photographs.

Essay Topic 3

At the end of the novel, as she parts from Ruby at the train station, Patricia says, "The past is what you leave behind in life, Ruby," and Ruby answers, "Nonsense, Patricia, the past's what you take with you." Which phillosophy do you think Atkinson believes? Why?

(see the answer keys)

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