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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. During Lisabeth's wagon trip as a child, where did she and her family sleep?

2. Early in "English Creek," what task do Jick and his father set out to do?

3. What is the name of the town nearest to the McCaskill's home?

4. In the morning after spending his first night in a cabin with Stanley, Jick sets off for what destination?

5. After mulling over his mother's wagon trip for a day, Jick leads his mother into discussing what topic?

Short Essay Questions

1. What foods do Jick and his family enjoy at the Fourth of July Picnic?

2. How, as Jick recollects, did he and Ray become friends?

3. How is a counting vee used to count sheep?

4. How, at the end of Part 2, does Jick sum up his Fourth of July experiences?

5. While Mac calls a square dance on the Fourth of July, who does Jick ask to dance and how does she respond?

6. When Earl and Alec come to blows outside the square dancing venue, how does the fight end?

7. After reading a story in the local paper, why is Jick so interested in the details of a wagon trip his mother took with her family twenty-five years prior?

8. Describe the special skills of Isodor.

9. During the Fourth of July Picnic, how does Toussaint make Jick uncomfortable?

10. What announcement by Jick's brother, Alec, early in Part 1, shatters the McCaskill family?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Doig use foreshadowing and references to the past to forward his plots and reveal character traits? Consider at least three examples.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss several examples in which Jick feels blindsided, especially by Mac, only to realize later the joy of completion and accepting responsibility. How do these experience help Jick in his journey toward manhood?

Essay Topic 3

Lisabeth is concerned, throughout most of the novel, that Jick is obsessed with the past and not open to the future and its possibilities. What is the basis for her concern? How has she changed in this regard, in her eighties, as revealed in Part 4? What interaction with Jick in Part 4 reveals the extent to which Lisabeth has changed?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 794 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample