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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 9 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where do the women who visit Hadley say they are from?

2. What does Seraphina do after she learns the nannies are not there and her son says he is hungry?

3. What does Seraphina suspect about her nannies?

4. What is Seraphina's husband's name?

5. What does the email one of the nannies wrote to Seraphina weeks before say?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does borrowing a baby make Hadley feel about her lot in life?

2. How does Paul behave around Seraphina?

3. Who comes to Hadley's apartment after she arrives with Gemma and where are they from?

4. Why do the women who come to Hadley's apartment say they think she is one of them?

5. What does one of the woman who comes to Hadley's apartment say to Hadley when she says that borrowing a baby is not a crime?

6. How does Seraphina feel about her life as a mother?

7. Describe Hadley's experience at the library when she looks for a baby to borrow.

8. Why does Hadley consider running away with Gemma when she takes her from the library?

9. How does Seraphina discover her nannies are gone and how does she react?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay describing the imagery used in "Graceful Burdens." Indicate examples of imagery in the text and identify possible meanings.

Essay Topic 2

Write a brief essay analyzing the Roxane Gay's choice to write "Graceful Burdens" in past tense. Do you agree with this choice? How would the story be different if written in a different tense?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay examining the babies and motherhood as a symbol in "Graceful Burdens." In what scenes does this seem most significant? What is the context? How do these work to develop the narrative?

(see the answer keys)

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