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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. Which of the following does Fife note as being among his earlier airplane trips?

2. Which of the following news events does Fife note in the paper before he leaves for Vermont?

3. Which of the following jobs does Fife hold in Boston?

4. Which of the following does Fife note as an earlier name of Plymouth Bay?

5. Which of the following accents does Fife note his father has?

Short Essay Questions

1. What reasons does Fife note for feeling sorry for Diana?

2. How is Vincent described as he is introduced?

3. What reasons does Fife note for deciding against the Chapmans’ offer?

4. After what does Fife pattern his appearance while living with the Chapmans?

5. What reasons does Alicia give in favor of Fife accepting the Chapmans’ offer?

6. What reasons do the Chapmans give for offering Fife a business position?

7. What technique does Fife use to overcome panic aboard the plane?

8. What reasons does Alicia give in favor of Fife refusing the Chapmans’ offer?

9. Where does Fife sit on his flight to Boston, and why?

10. Why does Fife tell Emma he has to confess to her in front of witnesses rather than in private?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Fife comments to Emma that “a countless number of times throughout his live, his reality seems to have been little more than the refracted pressures of his needs. Those are his exact words, carefully chosen, sharply articulated: the refracted pressures of his needs” (115). What might Fife mean by the phrase? How does the novel bear out that meaning?

Essay Topic 2

Explicate the implications of the comment, “It’s like trying to tie a novel to the author’s real life, he says. You can’t do it” (106).

Essay Topic 3

Consider the following passage:

He likes the mingled odor of cigarettes and sweat and minty shampoo. He can’t catch the scent of much, but he can smell her. Young women, their scent is different and better than that of middle-aged and older women. It’s as if desire and longing for desire have distinct and different odors. When Emma leans down in the morning to kiss his cheek before leaving for their production company office downtown, he inhales the smell of English breakfast tea and unscented soap. The odor of a longing for desire. This young woman, Sloan, she smells of desire itself (7-8).

What tone does the passage convey? How does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

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