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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why did the narrator come to Pepperville Beach?
(a) To bury a relative.
(b) To visit a relative.
(c) To close on a house that had been in the family for years.
(d) To buy a house.

2. What one word was the only one Chick could manage to say when his mother, who had been dead eight years, entered the kitchen in Section 2: Part 2?
(a) Why.
(b) Impossible.
(c) How.
(d) Mom.

3. Why does Chick refuse to give up baseball even after his father has left the family?
(a) He likes baseball.
(b) He still wants a connection to his father.
(c) He likes the coach.
(d) He wants to annoy his mother.

4. What does the narrator see that draws her to the place where she will meet the main character of the novel?
(a) Kids in purple t-shirts pitching and hitting.
(b) A flower filled cemetery.
(c) Kids playing on the beach.
(d) Old men tossing a ball around.

5. What does Chick find in the refrigerator of his mother's long empty house?
(a) Stolen computer parts.
(b) Food.
(c) Drugs.
(d) A rat.

6. Why did Chick Benetto once wish his mother would leave him alone?
(a) She was smothering him.
(b) She was rude and unkind.
(c) She was too critical.
(d) She was full of too much bad advice.

7. What kind of story does the narrator suggest this novel is?
(a) A mystery.
(b) A ghost story.
(c) A romance.
(d) A family drama.

8. During a night of heavy drinking, where does Chick decide to go?
(a) Pepperville Beach, his hometown.
(b) Boston, his wife's hometown.
(c) New York, his daughter's home.
(d) Los Angeles, his sister's home.

9. Why does Chick tell Roberta the truth about Santa Claus that first Christmas after Len left the family?
(a) He thinks believing in Santa is childish.
(b) He misses his dad and does not want his mother to try to take her place.
(c) He thinks Posey is trying to trick them.
(d) He believes that believing in Santa is hurting Roberta.

10. What question does Posey ask Chick that causes him to insist that her being in the kitchen eight years after her death is impossible?
(a) Is he ill.
(b) Can he stay all day.
(c) Is he dead.
(d) Is Catherine joining them.

11. What does Chick think about his visit to his mother two years after her death?
(a) Chick believes he has died.
(b) Chick does not question it at all.
(c) Chick believes he is having an alcohol induced hallucination.
(d) Chick begins to question his perceptions.

12. Why did Posey begin working as a hairstylist when Chick was a child?
(a) She was good at it and she needed a job.
(b) She preferred hairstyling to nursing.
(c) She wanted more flexible hours.
(d) She liked to help old ladies look good for their husbands.

13. Why did Len Benetto often spend long chunks of time away from his family?
(a) To spend time with his friends.
(b) To spend time with his biological family.
(c) To help reduce the friction at home.
(d) To visit with liquor distributors and to manage his new store in a town an hour away.

14. Why did a librarian tell Chick he could not read 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA by Jules Verne?
(a) It was to easy for him.
(b) He was disrespectful to books.
(c) He did not have a library card.
(d) It was too hard for him.

15. What family event was Chick Benetto not invited to?
(a) His father's funeral.
(b) His daughter's wedding.
(c) His sister's wedding.
(d) His mother's funeral.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Chick recall that his mother barked at a neighborhood dog?

2. What did Len hope his son would do as an adult?

3. What does Chick feel is unbalanced in the lists he made regarding his and his mother's love for one another?

4. Why did Chick and his sister have trouble accepting that their parents were going to get divorced?

5. Why does Chick claim he did not check on the driver of the truck involved in his accident?

(see the answer keys)

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