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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 NOT describe Brenda's relationship with Neil?

2. How does the narrator know Flora Grieves?

3. What does the narrator reflect on regarding her own mother?

4. Who lives in the house next door to Almeda?

5. Who was the daughter who was responsible for running the shop in #27?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Flora try to mend the relationship with the narrator's mother, and what does the narrator think about how well she knew her own mother?

2. Who is Miss Dobie and what is her housekeeper, Judy's, reaction at seeing that Antoinette has driven Hazel instead of Dudley?

3. What is life like for women in Almeda's town?

4. What awakens Almeda in the night and what does she do about the disruption?

5. What does Murray suspect that Victor and Barbara are doing and under what circumstances does Victor leave for good?

6. Why had Robert married Ellie instead of Flora, and how did Ellie's health deteriorate?

7. What was the relationship between the narrator's mother, and Flora after the narrator's mother moved away to marry and start a family?

8. Why has Hazel decided to travel to a town in Scotland and who does she meet right away when she arrives?

9. In what way does Almeda realize that she has been approaching life all wrong, and how does she see violence symbolized in her life?

10. What does Hazel conclude about what Dudley gives to both Judy and Antoinette?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the overall setting for the stories in the book? Be sure to include geography, time period and any pertinent popular culture events. Why did Munro choose to use these places in the stories?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the role of the family in Munro's stories. What does it mean for some of the characters? How does the family evolve in its support of each other? How are some of the families fractured? Give examples.

Essay Topic 3

The author uses more than one instance of irony in the book. Cite at least two other examples you can identify in the stories and note why they are examples of irony.

(see the answer keys)

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