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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 does Barbara Kingsolver say was stronger in the place where she lived when Camille was four?

2. What did the library recruit Barbara Kingsolver for?

3. What does Barbara Kingsolver teach her daughter, instead of showing her how to make hospital corners?

4. What skill did Camille develop during Barbara Kingsolver's travels with her?

5. How does Barbara Kingsolver characterize her physique?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Barbara Kingsolver get Buster?

2. What is the 'high tide of Tucson' a metaphor for?

3. How does Barbara Kingsolver describe her experience at the health club?

4. What problem does Barbara Kingsolver say her school system was plagued by, in 'How Mr. Dewey Decimal Saved My Life'?

5. Why Barbara Kingsolver and her daughter travel to Tenerife?

6. How did Barbara Kingsolver's sense of fashion change as she grew up?

7. What does the title of this essay signify?

8. Describe Kingsolver's trip to La Gomera.

9. Why does Barbara Kingsolver take up this meditation on monogamy in nature?

10. What inequality does Barbara Kingsolver explore in housekeeping?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a character sketch of the author based on her style and content. What values does she hold dear? What are her hopes and fears? What kind of person do you think she is? Anchor your sketch in passages in the book.

Essay Topic 2

What effect do Barbara Kingsolver's essays have on you as a reader? What effect do you think Kingsolver was aiming to have with her essays? What about you and what about Kingsolver explains the difference?

Essay Topic 3

What does Barbara Kingsolver tell us about her marriages in these essays? What are her thoughts on marriage? Does Kingsolver's divorce and re-marriage form a consistent theme, or just a loose background presence?

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