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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 Aunt Gladys' personal charity?

2. What information does Neil get from Julie?

3. In the basement, what is next to a photo of Brenda on a horse?

4. How does Neil avoid the issue of the boy wanting to check the Gauguin book out of the library?

5. What Characteristic of Mrs. Patimkin gives evidence of her more humble beginnings?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Aunt Gladys show that she is somewhat isolated in her Newark Jewish community?

2. How does the reader get introduced to ten-year-old Julie Patimkin?

3. How has the relationship developed between Neil and Brenda?

4. Tell how the relationship has developed between Neil and the boy who comes to look at the Gauguin book.

5. Discuss the competitive nature of Brenda.

6. What evidence is there that Brenda is driven by appearances?

7. Explain the social and economic difference between Brenda and Neil.

8. What does Neil tell Brenda about his family?

9. Relate what happens when Neil finds a refrigerator in the other part of the basement.

10. How does Neil feel sitting at the table with the Patimkin family?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a paper pointing out the similarities and differences between Mrs. Patimkin and Aunt Gladys. Specifically, show how their attitudes are similar though from a different point on the social scale.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that depicts Brenda as a drama queen who comes to the hotel in New York with a carefully worked out script for breaking off with Neil. The scene will contain props to make her story more believable such as the letters from her parents and the fake wedding band.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss in several paragraphs the head librarian's bigotry toward the African-American boy both in terms of racial bigotry and the attitude that boys are all inclined to lewd behavior.

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