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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. Who was Taki Thanatos?

2. Which creature was most interesting to the narrator when he first settles into his new residence?

3. During the presentation of the donkey, what did Margo keep talking about?

4. From whom did Mother get the donkey she gave to Gerald?

5. Who did Gerald find putting bamboo poles into the ground?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who was Roger? How did Gerald meet Roger? What did Gerald and Roger do together on the island?

2. Who is the narrator of the story? What do we learn about him in the opening "Conversations?" Where is his home?

3. What did mother have Costas construct in the yard? How did she explain the construction to Gerald? What was Gerald's mother really having built and why?

4. Who is Taki Thanatos? How did Gerald meet him? What did the two share in common? Where did Taki want to take Gerald?

5. What kinds of spiders did Gerald find on the island? What did he witness one day while observing one of the spiders he had caught?

6. Who was Kokino? What does Kokino mean in Greek? What did Kokino and Gerald do together?

7. Where did Taki take Gerald to catch fish? What unusual method did Taki use to catch fish? What strange fish did Taki catch that fascinated Gerald? What did Gerald learn about the fish Taki caught?

8. What was the "Bootle-bumtrinket?" How did Gerald get it and what did he do with it?

9. What did Gerald do with the crab he and Roger discovered on one of their walks? What did Gerald find fascinating about the crab that led him to further exploration?

10. What was "catching cuttlefish with love?" How did it work? What was Gerald's response to this interesting fishing style?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Gerald Durrell ended his memoir with the short paragraph "Lulled by the wine and the throbbing heart of the boat's engine, lulled by the warm night and the singing, I fell asleep while the boat carried us back across the warm, smooth waters to our island and the brilliant days that were not to be." Discuss this sentence, its relevance to the memoir as a whole, and the "days ahead" for the family.

Essay Topic 2

Describe Mother and her different roles in the memoir. She is a mother and the keeper of the Durrell family. What else does the reader know about her from reading the memoir? How does she relate to others?

Essay Topic 3

The final section of the book is entitled "Mail." What is in this chapter? Why is it important to the memoir? What do we know after reading the mail about the family and about Corfu?

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