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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 was Amos' nickname for Gypsy?

2. Woodrow tells Gypsy that Belle is still alive because she took some of his clothes and ______________________.

3. What does Woodrow tell the class about his mother?

4. How do the police find the dead body of the young woman killed by the farmer?

5. What did Gypsy find of her father's on the day that her mother married Porter?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Gypsy's relationship with Porter begun to change as she changes her perspective on many things?

2. Explain how Gypsy's new haircut lets a new Gypsy emerge.

3. Why is Woodrow looking through the personal ads in the newspaper while sitting in the tree house?

4. How does Porter try to help Gypsy to be who she is inside instead of being only the beautiful girl on the outside?

5. What does Gypsy do at home after her memory of finding her father after he had committed suicide?

6. What is the significance of the argument between Gypsy and Woodrow in terms of how they know what is especially painful for each other?

7. What is Grandpa Ball's opinion of why Belle moved into the mountains as a young woman and what impact that had on her relationships with people in the outside world?

8. Explain how Woodrow will soon have a chance to show his outer beauty just as Gypsy is getting the chance to exhibit her internal beauty.

9. How does Gypsy's conversation with Grandpa Ball about beauty give Gypsy a different perspective on which of her parents was more obsessed with it?

10. What is the significance of Porter's support of the piano recital for Gypsy?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the overall setting for the story. Why does the author use the setting she does? What is the time period of the story? How important is the time period to the attitudes and issues of the characters?

Essay Topic 2

Explain Ruth White's use of regionalism in the book. Cite examples of at least two different instances of regionalism and explain why the author used them where she did.

Essay Topic 3

Compare and contrast the lives of Gypsy and Woodrow. How are their circumstances similar? In what ways are their lives different? What draws them together to make them friends? What could have threatened to kill a friendship even before it began?

(see the answer keys)

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