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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 voice does Chick hear as he goes to answer the door in his mother's house after their visit to Rose?

2. What does Chick say is the best thing that ever happened to him in his career?

3. What does Posey tell Chick in a note just after he began college is not a license to be mean to girls?

4. What does Miss Thelma's family think she is doing?

5. Who called Posey's house one afternoon while Chick was there in Section 4: Part 1?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who does Chick say the ghost in his life truly was?

2. What job does Chick learn his mother did in order to help pay his college tuition?

3. Why was Posey not impressed with Chick's baseball scholarship?

4. What do they call a short stay in professional baseball?

5. What are the two days at college Chick shares with the reader?

6. Who encouraged Chick to drop out of college?

7. On whom does Chick blame the break up of his marriage?

8. Why does Posey suggest Len got involved with this second woman while he was in the war, even though he was already engaged to Posey?

9. What does Chick admit embarrassed him about his mother as a child?

10. Why does Chick suspect he is suffering from temporary insanity?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Chick's father. Who is Chick's father? Why did Chick's father leave the family? How did divorce affect Chick's relationship with his father? How did baseball play a role in Chick's relationship with his father? How did baseball pull Chick and his father apart?

Essay Topic 2

Whose voice does Chick hear on the phone at Rose's? When does Chick hear the voice again? Why does Chick believe he is the only one hearing the voice? Where is the voice coming from? Who does the voice belong to? What does this voice represent to Chick? What does Chick do about this voice?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss one of the following in detail, citing examples from the novel:

1) Point of view

2) The setting

3) Language and meaning

4) The structure, including the use of lists and newspaper announcements throughout the novel.

(see the answer keys)

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