View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How much longer after this injury did Chick continue to play baseball professionally?

2. What day does Chick believe was one of the happiest of his mother's life?

3. When Chick's father asks to drive him home from a college baseball game, what does he do that causes Chick to feel all is right with the world?

4. What does Posey say a child who is embarrassed by is mother is?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Posey often do for some of the patients in the hospital where she worked as a nurse?

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

3. Why was Posey fired from her job as a nurse?

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

5. What did Marie write in the memory book at her grandmother's funeral?

6. What does Chick claim he does not want to be?

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

8. What explanation does Posey give to Chick about how people are dying call her to their sides?

9. What does Chick hear when he answers the phone at Rose's house?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the narrator. Why does the narrator not tell the reader who she is at the beginning of the novel? Why does the narrator suggest she has only just met Chick Benetto when in fact she has known him her whole life? Who is the narrator? What role does the narrator play in Chick Benetto's attempted suicide? What caused the narrator to play this role in Chick Benetto's suicide? What changes in the narrator's relationship with Chick Benetto between the death of Posey, the near death of Chick Benetto, and Chick's telling of this story? Why?

Essay Topic 2

Why does Chick want to commit suicide? What causes Chick to become that depressed? Does Chick's decision have anything to do with either of his parents? In what way? Does Chick's wife or daughter have anything to do with his decision to commit suicide? Explain. When does Chick realize suicide is not the right answer? Why does Chick decide he must live? How much credit can Chick's mother take for helping Chick change his mind? Was Chick's mother really there with him or was she just a figment of his damaged brain? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss baseball. Why does Chick decide to go out for baseball? Why does Chick continue to play baseball? Why does Chick not tell his mother that his father comes to his college baseball games? Why does Chick leave college to play professional baseball? How does Posey feel about Chick making this choice? Does this baseball career give Chick the life he wants? Why or why not? Why does Chick finally decide to quit baseball? Why does Chick's father pressure him into playing an old-timers game? What is significant about this game?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 914 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample