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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. Tabatha's mother beat her ______________________.

2. What subject did Wally teach in his first teaching job?

3. What was notable about Nancy's family as she was growing up?

4. Who was Tabatha's brother who was shot in the head and killed when he was twenty?

5. What did most of the women at York Correctional Institution ask Wally about on his first visit with them?

Short Essay Questions

1. When did Wally Lamb know that he wanted to be a teacher, and in which type of students was he particularly interested?

2. Who was Isadore Weintraub, and what role did he play in Nancy's life?

3. What was Carolyn's crime?

4. Nancy Whiteley also wrote the story, "Orbiting Izzy". What was the premise of this story?

5. What was the state of Nancy's parents' relationship and what fears did she live with regarding her family life?

6. Why was Wally originally asked to come to the York Correctional Institution in 1999?

7. What trauma did Tabatha endure from the age of four and how did she get introduced to pot and alcohol?

8. What did Carolyn focus on outside while waiting to be processed into the Department of Corrections?

9. Which animals from a classic movie haunted Nancy Birkla's childhood?

10. What was Wally's hope for the readers who read the women's stories?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

A few of the women are very forthcoming about their premarital sexual relations and some abortions. Why did those women make those decisions that they did? What would the women advise young women today regarding such important life decisions? Would the women make the same choices today if they had to do it all over again? Explain.

Essay Topic 2

Explain your opinion of the women's writing styles. Did they deliver information succinctly? How did they develop the personalities? What was the general tone of the stories? What was the most appealing aspect of the women's writing for you? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

Explain the impact of intolerance or injustice that some of the women of color experienced. What did it mean to be poor and not white in 20th century America? What stigmas did these women of color live with for their entire lives? Was there anything that could have leveled the racial discrimination playing field? Explain.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,094 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample