View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Rick Ambrose was from what wealthy hometown and state?

2. Who opens the door at Isabelle’s apartment, when Marion goes there for help being pregnant?

3. What is Perry told to do once he is found drunk at the Haefle party?

4. Who was the salesman Marion meets on her job and has an affair with at the car dealership?

5. When Marion goes out walking in the community as the pastor’s wife, how does she feel?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Russ refuse to talk to Ambrose after Russ’s humiliation event?

2. What happens to Sharon when Clem breaks up with him?

3. Why does Marion believe that her “acting had mesmerized Bradley Grant,” and does this make her more like her actress sister Shirley?

4. Why does Russ wear his old work coat when he is around Frances?

5. How does Clem realize Russ is “blackening” Rick Ambrose’s name?

6. Why does Perry want to join the Crossroads group, and why does Ambrose tell Becky he disapproves of Perry joining?

7. Marion always said that Shirley had no use for women, and only wanted men in her life. How does Marion end up being the same way in her own life?

8. Who does Becky go to Crossroads group meetings with first?

9. Why does Marion still feel obsessed with Bradley 30 years after their love affair?

10. Why do Frances and Russ ignore Pastor Theo Crenshaw’s advice to leave the neighborhood boy Ronnie alone?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that recalls all of the reasons that Perry gives to show that he is doomed, and that his life has little hope of getting better.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay on two scenes where there are encounters with angels mentioned by a character in the novel. Do these characters believe that they saw real angels, or someone who just acted angelic towards the character experiencing the event in question?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay as to why Becky felt throughout most of the novel that her parents were working in concert to ruin her life. All teens may feel this way from time to time, but what concrete evidence did Becky have that her parents were out to get her and make her perpetually unhappy?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 920 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample