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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 Michael say language surrenders to in music?

2. Why does Kate think Agnes and Rose did not apply to work in the knitting factory?

3. When Uncle Jack speaks of Uganda, what does he call it?

4. What does Uncle Jack remember the children had with scones but never with soda bread?

5. Why does Gerry Evans say he is going to Spain?

Short Essay Questions

1. What news does Rose bring her family about the boy who was burned during the Lughnasa fires?

2. Which of the sisters understands the politics of the Spanish Civil War?

3. What has changed about Rose's appearance when she comes home from her meeting with Danny Bradley?

4. What is it that Kate asks Uncle Jack to promise?

5. What does it tell you about Gerry Evans that he says he will check the ignition and sparking plugs of the radio?

6. What does Uncle Jack reveal about his relationship to Okawa when he speaks about his time in Uganda?

7. What significance can we attach to Uncle Jack's declaration that he is cold all the time?

8. Why did Kate believe Agnes could not work in a factory?

9. What significance do you make of the fact that the recruiter who enlists Gerry Evans in the war effort is, unnoticed by Gerry Evans until after he is writing his name, a midget?

10. How does Rose describe her encounter with Danny Bradley?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When Rose is lost, the hierarchy within the group of sisters changes. Who is usually in charge and who takes over during the emergency? Using quotations from the play, explain this dynamic and tell why you think the change took place.

Essay Topic 2

The fox is an important metaphor in this play. If the family of women is the hen house, who is the fox? How many of the women have had unsuccessful relationships with men? List and explain each and develop your own thesis for why each situation ended unhappily.

Essay Topic 3

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.

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This section contains 867 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample