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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 a man compliment Sissie's father about?

2. How does Sissie describe her mother in the first summer detailed?

3. What is the bird stuck in?

4. How does Sissie describe her father's build?

5. Which of the following makes the setting in the second summer seem rural?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Part 3, how does Sissie feel about her father?

2. Describe one piece of foreshadowing that occurs in Sissie's second summer of narration.

3. What does Sissie claim anchors her to the earth?

4. What has changed in Sissie's life between the first two summers narrated?

5. How does Sissie view her father in Part 2? How does this compare to Jerry's view of their father?

6. How does Sissie compare the bar at the end of the book to the same bar years earlier?

7. Compare and contrast Jerry and his father.

8. Why does Sissie feel uneasy in the boat with her father?

9. Is Sissie justified in being angry with her parents in Part 3? Why or why not?

10. Why did Sissie marry Jesse?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How do Sissie's feelings about her father change over the course of the narration? How does the reader know that Sissie's feelings about her father are changing? Analyze her feelings for her mother in the same way.

Essay Topic 2

What is the significance of the title "Four Summers" to the story? How does it relate to the setting and Sissie's character development? Is the title so important that if it were changed, it would change the story's context? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Would you consider distrust to be a theme in the book? Who is Sissie distrustful of? Why?

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