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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. Who is Isodor?

2. After the rodeo, where does Jick see Stanley?

3. Which former English Creek resident is the main topic of the speech made by a McCaskill?

4. What is Alec's special talent?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does Mac's square dance calling compare with that of Jerome, the main caller?

3. Before the rodeo, why does Alec ask Jick to keep an eye on Leona?

4. How does the appearance of Velma affect Jick, when she arrives at the rodeo?

5. As Jick finishes digging the new outhouse pit, why does Alec visit the McCaskill house?

6. What is the topic of Lisabeth's speech at the Fourth of July Picnic?

7. What two special privileges does Jick's father grant him on the morning of the Fourth of July?

8. Why, in Part 1, does Jick describe his father as being "between and between and between?"

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

10. Why are eighteen of the sheep in the care of Canada Dan dead, and what work is Jick required to do as a result?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe Flume Gorge, the McCaskill's favorite place in the Two Medicine National Forest. Why do they feel so strongly about that location? Why is it significant that, in the climax of the novel, the glorious Flume Gorge is on fire?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the important role fire, along with the threat of fire, plays in the novel. How does fire drive characters apart? How does it unite them? How does the uncontrollable nature of fire, ultimately controlled by man with proper planning, support Doig's view of man's relationship with nature?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 781 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample