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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is true of Alice's boyfriend?
(a) He is younger and an athlete.
(b) He is older and unattractive.
(c) He is older and very handsome.
(d) He is younger and acne prone.

2. How does Alice describe Mr. Early when he taught high school?
(a) Dancing on his toes, whooping over the sounds the poet makes.
(b) An endless fountain of words, energy and hope.
(c) Bursting out of his ill fitting suit with prose and poetry.
(d) The unexpected man who no one recognizes once he speaks.

3. Why doesn't Mother attend the funeral in Part Three?
(a) She is not notified in time.
(b) She has not forgiven the deceased.
(c) She refuses to step foot in the Big House.
(d) She has been committed again.

4. What job does Alice have when she visits Mother after Nonna's funeral?
(a) She is a counselor.
(b) She is a teacher.
(c) She is a social worker.
(d) She is a waitress.

5. How does Alice's Walter die?
(a) He has a sudden heart attack.
(b) He is hit by a Geryhound bus.
(c) He is killed by thugs over a gambling debt.
(d) He overdoses on Perdocan and Scotch.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did Alice and Mr. Early keep in touch until his death?

2. What does Alice say that Nonna claimed Mother lied about?

3. Alice quotes someone, maybe her father, as saying, "A man sounds like money when he-"

4. How does Uncle Billy believe that Father died?

5. What kind of poets does Alice say Father liked?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Mother live apart from the family in California in Part Three: The Big House?

2. Describe the role of poetry in Alice's life.

3. Why does Mother tell people that Father was a sculptor?

4. Describe the relationship between Mother and Nonna.

5. Is Alice happy at the end of the story?

6. Why is Nonna kinder to Alice than she is to Mother?

7. Describe the life that Alice creates for herself in New York.

8. Explain why Alice finds herself in a lawyer's office when she is 30-years-old.

9. How has Mother and Alice's relationship changed when they are living on different coasts?

10. Who is the most positive father figure in Alice's life?

(see the answer keys)

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