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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. What does Cory tell Troy about the football recruiter who has watched Cory play with his high school team?

2. As the first Act closes, what does Troy tell Cory he'd better be careful not to do?

3. Why does Troy tell Rose to go back inside?

4. When Bono tells Troy he'll be back on Monday, what does Troy say?

5. Who lives with Rose and Troy?

Short Essay Questions

1. What outside chore does Troy want Cory to help him with when Cory comes home from football practice?

2. What does Rose say was the reason why Troy never got to play in the major leagues?

3. When he comes home for Troy's funeral, what does Cory find out that Lyons has been doing over the last few years?

4. Gabriel is no longer living at the boarding house; where has he now been taken?

5. What does Troy say while complaining about baseball?

6. What did Gabriel receive as compensation for his injury?

7. Why does Troy say he left home when he was a young man?

8. When Troy and Bono come home after Cory has left for the game, why are they celebrating?

9. What does Gabriel do at the end of the play?

10. What is Rose's response to Troy's confession about Alberta?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain how foreshadowing is used effectively in the play. Give examples of at least five instances in which foreshadowing comes into play--both from the standpoint of the foreshadowing itself and the event or dialogue it predicts.

Essay Topic 2

In the play, Rose reveals an early theme of the play when she states, "Some people don't know that improving their lives is possible." Discuss this theme as it applies to Troy. What is Troy's opinion of this idea? Why does he feel the way he does?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the structure of the play, examining the time frame during which the play is set. How does Wilson alert the audience/reader to the passage of time from scene to scene? In your analysis, include your ideas about why Wilson made the decision to start the play when Cory was a high school student and end it nearly eight years later. Discuss the ways changes in other characters could only have been accomplished by using that time frame.

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