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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 does the Captain assert during the beginning of his conversation with the narrator in Chapter 5?

2. What did the Captain do while waiting in Chapter 5?

3. Why did the Captain leave his position as Commander?

4. Besides her herbal remedies, what else is Mrs. Todd known for in Dunnet Landing?

5. How old is William?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the way Mrs. Todd reacts to the narrator's leaving.

2. Explain what Gaffett does while shipwrecked off the coast of Greenland. Focus on his activities.

3. Describe the evening when Mrs. Todd and Mrs. Fosdick visit the narrator and tell the story of Poor Joanna.

4. When leaving Mrs. Todd's home, the narrator muses on the topic of death. Explain this thought process and how it relates to the situation.

5. Which values does Elijah Tilley embody?

6. Describe the going-away gift Mrs. Todd leaves for the narrator and its meaning.

7. How does Mrs. Todd characterize the man Joanna was going to marry?

8. Describe the way that the narrator's decision to write at the schoolhouse affects her relationship with Mrs. Todd.

9. Describe the narrator's first meeting with Elijah Tilley.

10. Elijah Tilley's character provides a number of surprises for the narrator. What are they?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

At the beginning of Chapter 12, the narrator introduces Mrs. Fosdick with the following words: "Except for a few stray guests, islanders or from the inland country, to whom Mrs. Todd offered the hospitalities of a single meal, we were quite by ourselves all summer; and when there were signs of invasion, ... I suffered much from apprehension. ... but after all, ... it was impossible not to sympathize with Mrs. Todd, who, ... was really delighted with the prospect of entertaining an old friend." Describe the novels themes of solitude and isolation vs. the importance of community by expanding on what the narrator means by this quote.

Essay Topic 2

Drawing on what the reader learns from Mrs. Todd's conversation with the narrator in the pennyroyal patch on Green Island, describe the complexity of Mrs. Todd's relationship to her late husband.

Essay Topic 3

When first meeting Captain Littlepage at the beginning of Chapter 5, the narrator states: "...Mrs. Todd had told me one day that Captain Littlepage had overset his mind with too much reading; she had also made dark reference to his having 'spells' of some unexplainable nature." How did her conversation with him confirm or contradict this view? Support your claims with concrete examples from the book.

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