View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What appliance does David buy to replace one that has been stolen?
(a) A microwave oven.
(b) An electric drill.
(c) A radio.
(d) A television.

2. After the attack, what has happened to the books that David brought for research on his Byron project?
(a) They were burned.
(b) They are gone and David suspects Petrus has stolen them.
(c) Bev has asked to borrow them.
(d) They were in his car that was stolen.

3. What do Lucy and her father discuss on their trip back from attempting to reclaim the car?
(a) Lucy's rape.
(b) Lucy's car.
(c) Lucy's stall at the market.
(d) Lucy's debt.

4. Whom does Dave see at the grocery store who ignores him?
(a) Dr. Rassool
(b) Melanie.
(c) Rosalind.
(d) Elaine Winter.

5. When David is back in Cape Town, he calls Bev to find out how Lucy is doing. What question does David ask Bev about Lucy that she evades?
(a) Whether or not Bev trusts Petrus.
(b) Whether or not Lucy is pregnant.
(c) Whether or not Lucy is on tranquilizers.
(d) Whether or not Lucy is angry with him.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Lucy omit from her story when she tells the police of the attack?

2. In this attack that David instigates, who comes to the rescue of the recipient of David's attack?

3. To whom does David write a letter about the attack on the farm?

4. After the police visit the farm, why does David spend the morning digging a large hole?

5. Who Is Teresa in the most recent version of his play?

Short Essay Questions

1. When David rhetorically asks, "Against this new Petrus, what chance does Lucy stand?" what is his implied answer?

2. How might one interpret Elaine Winter's treatment of David at the grocery store?

3. What might one make of David missing the ducks and the dogs?

4. Is David disappointed in himself by his agreement to meet Bev at the clinic for a tryst?

5. Is there a symbolic significance to the characters of his libretto in progress "fading away" and being replaced by the corpses of dogs, his new work?

6. How might Lucy's and David's switching of bedrooms be construed as symbolic of some other switch between them?

7. What does David make of Lucy's claim that she only went to the police after the attack for insurance purposes?

8. What is one aspect of Lucy's argument to keep the child that is actually aligned with her early Mother Earth persona?

9. Do Petrus's responses to David's rage about the assault seem truly suspicious or might the reader be judging them through David's lens?

10. The description of Teresa in the last chapter is, "She wants to be rescued--from the pain, from the summer heat, from the Villa Gamba, from her father's bad temper, from everything." This is about David's fictional character, but fiction is based upon what writers know. Does this description hint at David or Lucy's need for respite?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,034 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample