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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 old was Lee Ada when she married Frank?

2. During the time Clyo worked in the cotton fields, what was one health problem from which she did NOT suffer?

3. What did Frank do with the painted tortoise when the vendor finally released it?

4. What was the only way the children could tell if Frank thought they had done well at target practice on a particular day?

5. On what object did Lee Ada embroider the words, "I love you, Franklin"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What were the two pieces of advice given to Frank by the doctor in the state mental hospital who had taken an interest in his case?

2. What was Janisse's reaction to seeing her first indigo snake live in the wild?

3. Who was the first person to spark Janisse's interest in the natural world and how did that person spark her interest?

4. How did Lee Ada's father Arthur feel about Frank's and Lee Ada's decision to elope?

5. How does the concept of determinism emerge in the final paragraph of the chapter entitled Poverty?

6. What types of things did Lee Ada collect to satisfy her love for pretty things?

7. When Janisse says of her grandmother Clyo and grandfather Charlie, "Both of them knew what the food symbolized and neither was willing to make further amends," (148) what does she mean?

8. What is ironic about Clyo's refusal to let Frank help her improve her health and her simultaneous belief that sending the little money she has to televangelists will make her well again?

9. What actions does Janisse relate taking in order to show how interested she was in anything advertised as free in her childhood?

10. How did Janisse feel about her mother when she was a child?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explicate the scene of Janisse's session of night-rappelling down the cliff. How does she use her story of the event to support the larger themes within her memoir?

Essay Topic 2

Explain the significance of Janisse Ray's abject rejection of her great-grandfather Pun's advice to not "take more on your heart than you can shake off on your heels." How does her rejection of this maxim relate to the larger themes within the memoir?

Essay Topic 3

What is the significance of Janisse Ray's story in the chapter entitled Leaving about the first time she saw the word environmentalism in action? What lessons did she learn that day--about herself and about the world? And what lessons does she hope to teach the reader while relaying her account of this event?

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This section contains 1,506 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample