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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 Bianca meet her husband?

2. Who is Carolina's husband?

3. What over-the-counter pills does Sarah take at home to help with her headaches?

4. What is one of Savvie's boyfriend's annoying habits?

5. What evidence do the police find of Savvie's and Carolina's abduction that is particularly difficult for the sisters to confront?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. In the story "Difficult Women," what is it about death that makes girls more interesting?

4. Why is Alvarez hesitant to get more involved with Sarah in "La Negra Blanca," even though he adores her?

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

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

7. What is the basis of Carolina's and Savvie's strong bond in "I Will Follow You"?

8. Why is William Livingston briefly appalled when he finds out that Sarah is mixed-race in "La Negra Blanca"?

9. What event eventually brings Kate and Magnus back together?

10. What do Bianca's parents do with her when she is a baby?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay analyzing how Gay uses specific, memorable details and imagery in the story "Noble Things" to convey the character Parker Coles Johnson VI's deep sense of loss and foreboding in the newly seceded South.

Essay Topic 2

Gay features twins in several of the stories in Difficult Women, including "The Mark of Cain," "How," and "I am a Knife." Write an essay comparing and contrasting the different themes Gay develops around her characters who are twins throughout different stories in the book.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay exploring what seems to motivate Anna Lisa to leave her baby with the narrator, a woman she does not appear to know very well, in "Break All the Way Down." Why does the narrator feel compelled to continue to punish herself for what happened to her young son? Cite specific references to the text to support your answers.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 785 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample