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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. To what tune do Gerry Evans and Chris dance?

2. What does Gerry Evans see at the Mundy house that he says is a bad omen?

3. Why does Kate ask God to forgive her?

4. How does Gerry Evans react when Chris tells him the family is watching them?

5. What is Kate's nickname at school?

Short Essay Questions

1. After Agnes blows Michael a kiss, she says it was the wrong thing to do. Why would it be the wrong thing to do?

2. The song Maggie sings says that if the Irish don't vote for De Valera, they'll be like Gandhi and his goat. What does this mean?

3. What is significant about the names Nora and Nina that Bernie O'Donnell gave to her twin daughters?

4. For what is the fox in the hen house a metaphor?

5. How has Uncle Jack brought status to the Mundy family?

6. How does Kate explain Uncle Jack's strange behavior?

7. What do you think Michael means when he talks of a widening breach between what seemed to be and what was?

8. From what does Kate struggle to protect her home when they joke about naming the radio?

9. When Irish music comes from the radio, which of the sisters begins to dance first, and in what mood does she dance?

10. Why does Kate become angry when Rose repeats the idea that twins are a double blessing?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What difference does the fate of the Sweeney boy, who was burned in the festival of Lughnasa, make to the story? Cite what was believed to have happened and what actually happened. Why do you think this detail is included in the play? Is the boy a metaphor? If so, what does he represent?

Essay Topic 2

The music of the 1930s has an important role in this play, as it had on the characters' lives. Analyze what you think the playwright was showing us, the audience, with the use of "Anything Goes" and "Dancing in the Dark." Listen to these once-popular songs on the Internet before writing about them, as a great deal more than the title is to be learned from them.

Essay Topic 3

Analyze what it means to you that young Michael's kites have faces that are cruel and grinning, and that they are not able to fly. Why do you think the playwright put this element into his play? What do these kites tell you about young Michael's feelings toward the women in his family? Toward life in general?

(see the answer keys)

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