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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 went wrong in Hanna's father's life?

2. How does the stone thrower's wife feel about her child with the stone thrower?

3. How old were Hanna and her twin sister when their mother left the family?

4. Where does Stephanie's father take her on Saturday mornings in the story "In the Event of my Father's Death"?

5. What does Stephanie do with Teresa after her father dies?

Short Essay Questions

1. What unique ability do Hanna and Anna share?

2. Why does the narrator's mother in the story "A Pat" tell her to befriend the saddest and most desperate people?

3. How does Hanna feel about her husband Peter in the short story "How"?

4. Why does Hanna drive to the college town nearby and invite sexual encounters with college-aged boys in secret?

5. What does Teresa tell Stephanie that surprises her at the end of the story "In the Event of My Father's Death"?

6. What is the narrator's husband, David, concerned about in relation to the narrator's health in the story "Bone Density"?

7. What does Natasha finally do that her husband has repeatedly been asking her to do at the end of "Break All the Way Down"?

8. How did Hanna and Laura first become friends?

9. What helps to bring Natasha and Ben back together in "Break All the Way Down"?

10. How did Father Michael first meet Rebekah?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay analyzing what you think the narrator's source of power and control over her husband in the story "Open Marriage" seems to be. Why does the narrator seem so completely unconcerned when her husband suggests they engage in an open marriage?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay analyzing why the narrator has such difficulty fully trusting her lover in the story "Strange Gods." Why do you think the narrator finally comes around to accepting her partner's marriage proposal, on her partner's fifth attempt, at the end of the story?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay exploring how Gay uses the idea of bone density in the story "Bone Density" both literally and figuratively to highlight the divisions and discord between the narrator and her husband, citing specific references to the text to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 875 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample