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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. Why does Jack pull of the road on the way to take Benny to Knockglen?

2. What does Benny find out about why her parents were out the night of the dance?

3. What does Kit receive after Joseph dies?

4. Who does the doctor tells Annabel not to tell about Eddie Hogan's death?

5. What does Heather complain that she does not have?

Short Essay Questions

1. What foils Nan's plans to tell Jack she is pregnant at Eve's cottage?

2. What is the exchange between Jack and Benny the morning after Jack took Nan to a dance?

3. What does Nan do when she is sure she is pregnant?

4. What is the meeting like at the cafe when Kit and Joseph are there?

5. What advice of Nan's does Benny use to dissuade her father from walking her to Eve's party and coming to collect her later?

6. What does Benny learn from Eve about where Jack and Nan went for their trysts.

7. What do Heather and Benny do when Benny finds her at the cottage?

8. On their date at the restaurant, what romantic thing takes place?

9. How does Sean manipulate an invitation to the Hogan's house for Christmas?

10. What happens when Fonzie and Clodagh try to enter the bar at Healy Hotel?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay of at least two typed, double-spaced pages on Rising to the Occasion. Use the character of Annabel in three phases--first, as a dutiful housewife and subservient to her husband Eddie; second, as a devastated widow ill prepared to manage life without a husband; and third, as a businesswoman, changed and confident as she learns to manage the business.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay of at least two typed, double-spaced pages on The Character of Benny in Circle of Friends. Divide the essay into three main points--Benny physically, Benny mentally and psychologically, and Benny at the end of the novel.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay of at least two typed, double-spaced pages on Heather as Hope for the Future. Binchy uses the child Heather to take aim at religious prejudice. (1) Show how Heather is unaffected by the Protestant/Catholic labels as she develops a relationship with Eve; (2) Discuss how Heather adapts to Mother Francis' school in preference to the boarding school in Dublin; (3) Mention Heather's enjoyment and excitement over being in the Easter pageant at St. Mary's. Evaluate how well Binchy is saying that people of all religions can live comfortably together.

(see the answer keys)

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