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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 the denomination of the church where Jim Timothy is speaking?

2. According to Jim Timothy the child whose mother performed surgery was dying of _________.

3. What does Jim Timothy call the marriage of mini-series and holiday special?

4. What do the Cottinghams send out for a Christmas card?

5. What does Thaddeus Bristol compare children's Christmas pageants to at the beginning of his story?

Short Essay Questions

1. Whose performance receives the only compliment from Thaddeus Bristol?

2. What has been the trajectory of Jim Timothy's career?

3. What happens one Thanksgiving when a beggar knocks on the narrator's door in "Christmas Means Giving"?

4. How does the narrator describe his feelings on the last Christmas described in "Christmas Means Giving"?

5. What is the great choice that Jim Timothy suggests the people of Jasper's Breath have in front of them?

6. What does Jim Timothy offer the members of the congregation if they help him?

7. What does the narrator discover happens to his sons after he gives them to the beggar?

8. Who is Jim Timothy addressing in "Based Upon A True Story"?

9. How does the giving contest become gruesome in "Christmas Means Giving"?

10. What does Thaddeus Bristol see as the flaws in "A Reindeer's Gift" at Scottsfield Elementary?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the character of Thaddeus Bristol and what he represents in society.

Essay Topic 2

What do these stories reveal about the importance of social status in American middle-class culture?

Essay Topic 3

What qualities does Jocelyn Dunbar embody both as a character and as a narrator of the story? What makes her a reliable or unreliable narrator?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 866 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample