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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. How does Gemma describe the King's party in Chapter 3?

2. What does the building where Becca works overlook?

3. What will happen when the curse comes in Gemma's story?

4. Why has Eve always thought that Gemma took the nickname of Dawna?

5. What does Becca avoid upon arriving at work in Chapter 8?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do Sylvia and Shana make fun of Becca for in Chapter 2?

2. In Chapter 4, what do we learn about Gemma's past?

3. After Gemma's funeral, what do Becca's parents reveal was found among Gemma's things?

4. What does Gemma tell her granddaughters about the baby born to the King and Queen in the story?

5. What are Shana and Sylvia begging their grandmother for at the beginning of the novel?

6. After Sylvia and Shana have left in Chapter 2, what does Gemma tell Becca, and make Becca promise to do?

7. What do the Berlins debate about Gemma's real name in Chapter 4?

8. Where are Becca's work offices housed? What were Becca's first 'real' articles at the Advocate about?

9. What name does Becca have for her car in Chapter 2? Why has she named her car?

10. What are the documents that Becca falls asleep going over in Chapter 6?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Yolen's use of foreshadowing. What are some examples of foreshadowing in the novel? Why does Yolen use foreshadowing? How do the examples of foreshadowing affect the tone of the novel?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the motif of death in the novel "Briar Rose". How does Yolen illustrate the death motif throughout the novel? What do the characters think of death? How do the characters, particularly Becca, react to the deaths?

Essay Topic 3

What is an allegory? How is the novel "Briar Rose" an allegory of the sufferings experienced by those imprisoned in concentration and extermination camps during WWII?

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