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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did Nick become poisoned in Chapter 2?
(a) Through a job transporting toxic chemicals and solvents.
(b) From pressure-treated lumber.
(c) From fertilizer fumes on the farm.
(d) By off-gassing from roofing materials.

2. What is the name Smarsh comes up with for her unconceived, unborn daughter?
(a) Arnie.
(b) Jennifer.
(c) August.
(d) Betty.

3. What song does Smarsh remember dancing to in her family room?
(a) Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.
(b) Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer.
(c) Bruce Springsteen's I'm on Fire.
(d) Madonna's Like a Virgin.

4. How long did Smarsh research this book for?
(a) 10 years.
(b) 20 years.
(c) 15 years.
(d) 5 years.

5. Smarsh says the American economy is less like a dream than it is like which of the following?
(a) An inconsistent god.
(b) A race.
(c) A bed of flowers.
(d) A restaurant meal.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did Betty and Smarsh leave Betty's new house in the middle of the night in Chapter 3?

2. What kind of toy did Jeannie have as a child that she was heartbroken to lose?

3. Which city was Smarsh's family farm 30 miles west of?

4. How many times had Betty been married by the time Arnie asked her to marry him?

5. Where did many of Smarsh's uncles, aunts and cousins work in Wichita?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Smarsh's parents, Jeannie and Nick, meet?

2. In Part II, how does Smarsh describe her great-grandfather, Aaron, drawing on others' memories?

3. What birthday does Smarsh's father have that Smarsh feels is a sort of poetic for him?

4. What are Smarsh's memories of her father Nick like from childhood?

5. In Part II, what does Betty become so ill with?

6. In Part I, what is one of Nick's greatest accomplishments in carpentry?

7. How does Nick become so sick in Part II?

8. In Part II, what event with small animals greatly upsets Smarsh?

9. Why was Nick's barn burning down such a blow to Smarsh's family?

10. What was Smarsh's relationship with her mother like when Smarsh was a young child?

(see the answer keys)

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