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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 drives her to leave?

2. Why does Oga stop being friends with Ayla?

3. How many days transpire between a clan child's birth and naming day?

4. How does Brun feel about Ayla during the winter of Broud's constant abuse of Ayla?

5. What most influences the leader to let Iza help the girl?

Short Essay Questions

1. What leads the clan to find the girl?

2. How did the woman in the legend have her deformed son accepted?

3. What does Ayla decide while she is practicing with the sling?

4. What makes the girl blindly rush straight toward the herd of wild cows?

5. What does Oda's story make Ayla realize?

6. What does Creb realize when he learns of Ayla's crime?

7. What do the clan members believe about how babies are conceived?

8. How do the women treat Ayla after she returns?

9. What does the girl do during the earthquake?

10. What does the clan do with deformed babies?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What makes Brun a good leader? Write an essay exploring Brun's character. Identify three characteristics that you consider good leadership qualities. Provide examples from the text showing the development of that characteristic in Brun. How does each make him a good leader?

Essay Topic 2

What role do the totem spirits play in the lives of the clan? How do their beliefs regarding the spirits affect their acceptance of Ayla? How does Ayla challenge their beliefs? Write an essay about three specific points in the story where the totem spirits play a role.

Essay Topic 3

Ayla struggles with an internal conflict over using the sling.

Part 1) How does she justify using it the first time? How does she justify using it later? Identify the conflicting values behind her decision whether or not to pursue using the sling.

Part 2) Explain Ayla's realization that she cannot use the sling in a productive way. What does the porcupine symbolize? Why does she want to keep trying?

Part 3) How does the skill Ayla develops with the sling influence her relationships, especially with the men of the clan? Why does she have such a hard time feigning submission to male superiority?

(see the answer keys)

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