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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 is one of Ava's big objections to Baptist teachings?

2. What type of job did Ava have?

3. How many of the girls attended the first meeting at Joyce's house?

4. What color are all the rooms in Joyce's house painted?

5. How does Joyce feel about the reputation of the group with some people?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the success of the Sewing Circus move Joyce to do?

2. What has Reverend Anderson sent Joyce and why?

3. What does Joyce do for work, with whom does she work, where do they meet, what are they called, and why?

4. Describe the dream Ava has in Eddie's garden.

5. How does Joyce demonstrate condoms and what happens while she's doing it?

6. What does Joyce decide to do about the damage to her window?

7. What does Ava see when a car pulls into the driveway while Joyce is out of town?

8. What do Joyce and Ava mean by the word tumbling and how did it that meaning come about?

9. What does Ava see at Joyce's house and how does she feel?

10. What is the goal of the Sewing Circus?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The author's use of time shifts is an effective technique that allows her to share Ava's thoughts without the benefit of dialogue with another character.

1. Why do you think using flashbacks is an effective technique to tell about Ava? Use examples from the book to support your answer.

2. Chose one scene in the book that is a flashback and rewrite it as a dialogue between Ava and another person to convey the same information. Which method did you like better?

3. Write a brief summary of what you learned about Ava via the flashbacks. Include not just facts but her emotions and thoughts.

Essay Topic 2

The minister's wife symbolizes a large part of the nation's population, including a few religious fundamentalists, who think that people bring AIDS on themselves and probably deserve it as payment for immoral behavior.

1. What do you think is meant by this statement? Use examples from the book to support your answer.

2. If one said that anyone with AIDS deserve it would you think that would mean that people with colon cancer deserved it because they didn't eat enough fiber, or people with liver cancer deserved it from drinking, or people with diabetes deserved it from eating too many sweets, etc.? Explain your reasoning and use examples from the book to support your thinking.

Essay Topic 3

Joyce asks for the opportunity to address the boys herself. Joyce symbolizes the compassion and understanding that is so lacking in the lives of these kids, whose futures seem dim if they don't receive some sort of positive intervention.

1. What do you think is meant by this statement? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Do you think compassion is more powerful than punishment in changing a person? Why or why not?

3. If your house was vandalized by kids what would you want to do about it?

(see the answer keys)

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