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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 is Neil's answer when Brenda asks him if he ever took money from the girl at the sweets shop?

2. Who does Almeda see slumped against her fence in the morning?

3. What does Murray catch Victor doing when he comes home one day?

4. What does Neil eventually admit to Brenda?

5. Hazel discerns that _______________ is the father of Judy's baby.

Short Essay Questions

1. What are Brenda's conflicting feelings about the fight with Neil?

2. What is the town's attitude about the poor people in town?

3. What role does Murray's paranoia play in the story?

4. What are some of the possible lies in the story?

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

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

7. Why is the affair with Neil so important to Brenda?

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

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. How did the generation gap separate the narrator and her mother and what conclusion does she come to regarding how well she knew her own mother?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

Create a character study of Flora Grieves in "Friend of My Youth". What are her physical characteristics? What are her motivations? What are her fears? What are her dreams? What else can you say about Flora?

Essay Topic 3

Explain the role of women in Canada in the late-20th century when the women in the stories are living their lives. What precedents do they feel compelled to follow? What restrictions do they have? What freedoms did they have that 21st century women do not have?

(see the answer keys)

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