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

2. What was one main reason Betty had applied to work at the courthouse?

3. What is Smarsh's mother's name?

4. What did Smarsh's grandfather carve the year she was born?

5. What did Betty sometimes call Smarsh as a child?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Part I, what is the one fact of Smarsh's family history she thinks most significantly shaped her relationship to August?

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

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

4. What kinds of health epidemics does Smarsh say rural families often face today?

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

6. Why does Smarsh feel she needs to be so vigilant in childhood?

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Smarsh's decision to address much of the book to "August," the daughter she never birthed into poverty, affect the reader's experience of Smarsh's story? Write an essay explaining your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay analyzing Smarsh's exploration of the history of women's rights work and progressive activism in Kansas state politics, citing specific references to the text to help support your answers.

Essay Topic 3

In Chapter 5, on page 200, Smarsh's father Nick tells her a parable about a hard-working carpenter who intentionally does a shoddy job on a house for the first time in his life, only to have his supervisor hand him the keys to the house as a reward for his years of hard work. Write an essay exploring the meaning of this story as it relates specifically to Smarsh's family's situation and outlook on work, poverty, and opportunity.

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