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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 Clara say to Valeria about happiness?

2. What does Valeria remember seeing through the window bars at school?

3. Whose business card does the receptionist bring to Valeria?

4. When Michele is looking pale and troubled, what does he want Valeria to do?

5. What is Valeria's mother's attitude toward the director?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Valeria not like Marina?

2. How does Mirella respond when Valeria asks her to bring Riccardo his eggs?

3. What does Clara tell Valeria about Michele's film?

4. How does Valeria's mother behave at the Easter lunch?

5. Why, thinks Valeria, can Michele not really see her anymore?

6. What does Guido tell Valeria he has been afraid of?

7. How does Valeria feel in Guido's car?

8. What does Clara say about working women?

9. How does Michele reply when Valeria points out to him that Mirella still is not home?

10. How has Michele's opinion of Clara changed?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the understanding of freedom in the novel? Who has it? When is it promised? How important is it?

Essay Topic 2

Is Valeria an unreliable narrator? If so, under what circumstances or regarding which topics or characters do you believe this to be the case?

Essay Topic 3

How does Valeria's relationship with her daughter develop over the course of the novel? What do they learn from each other?

(see the answer keys)

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