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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. Richard feels that his appointments with the nurse practitioner amount to what?

2. What does Bill add to Richard's milkshake in Chapter Eleven?

3. Before becoming a home health aide, what did Bill do for a living?

4. Where does Richard go in Chapter Twelve?

5. Which childhood friend changed Karina's thoughts about childhood?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Richard meet Karina? What were his initial impressions of her?

2. Who is Elise and how did Karina meet her? What does Elise want Karina to do?

3. When Karina visits Richard for the second time, what changes in him does she notice?

4. Who is Maxine? How did Richard's diagnosis impact his relationship with her?

5. What are Karina's thoughts regarding birth and destiny? How are these beliefs illustrated by her own life?

6. What information does Elise give Karina during their morning walk in Chapter Eight?

7. What is the first part of Richard that stops working? What does he do as a result?

8. After Richard loses the loss of his arms, how does he feed himself? What does Bill add to Richard's food in Chapter Eleven? Why?

9. Who is Martyna and how did she influence Karina?

10. What is the "invisible presence" Richard feels every morning and why does he tell himself to be grateful for it?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze the author’s choice to tell this story by using alternating perspectives. How does viewing the action through the eyes of both Richard and Karina affect the story? How would the book be different if the story was told through just one of their perspectives?

Essay Topic 2

What do you think the future has in store for Karina after the close of the novel? Predict Karina’s future based on her thoughts and actions over the course of the novel.

Essay Topic 3

An epigraph is a short quotation at the beginning of a book. The epigraph to this novel is a quote from Rumi: “Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?” How does the epigraph reflect the lives of Richard and Karina? How does the epigraph reflect the novel’s themes?

(see the answer keys)

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