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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. How does a loose woman sit at the bar in the story "Difficult Women"?

2. What kind of music does William Livingston III like to listen to secretly?

3. Who does a frigid woman surround herself with in the story "Difficult Women"?

4. What is one part of her new community that Marcy enjoys participating in?

5. What is Sarah's secret about her heritage?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the background of the narrator's boyfriend, Gus, bringing her plastic body parts in the story "Baby Arm"?

2. Why do Savvie and Carolina not have to worry about money or finances?

3. What does Kate's elderly landlady tell her in the story "North Country" when she meets her for the first time?

4. Why does Bianca agree to go out with Dean and initially start a relationship with him?

5. What does Marcy like about the exercise classes in the story "Florida"?

6. What does Sal do to Caridad in the story "Florida" that upsets and offends Caridad?

7. Why does Sarah, who goes by Sierra at work, perform at a strip club?

8. What traumatic event did Kate experience with her long-term partner before meeting Magnus?

9. Why does Magnus get angry with Kate and ignore her calls for weeks?

10. What shocking realization does the narrator come to at the end of "The Mark of Cain"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the story "I Will Follow You," Savvie knows exactly what her sister Carolina means when she says she married Darryl because she would be no good to a really good man, and Darryl is not a really bad man. Write an essay explaining how the trauma and abuse of Savvie's and Carolina's childhood abduction affects each of their adult relationships with men and with each other.

Essay Topic 2

In several stories, including "North Country," "Break All the Way Down," and "Strange Gods," stillbirth or the sudden, tragic loss of a very young child are recurring themes. Write an essay analyzing how Gay uses the topic of grief over a child's death to develop the main characters in several of her stories, citing specific examples to the text in your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Why does the narrator in "The Mark of Cain" refrain from confronting either Caleb, her husband, or Jacob, her husband's twin brother, about the fact that they frequently trade places and pretend to be each other for lengthy periods of time? Write an essay explaining your answer, citing specific references to the text.

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