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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 Sylvie say about her relationship with her husband?

2. Of what does the hands-off care from Sylvie remind Ruth?

3. What happens after the girls fight over the flowers?

4. What do Ruth and Lucille do one day after school to eat?

5. What goes over them while they sleep?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when the sheriff comes to the house to see about the fire Sylvie lit to burn trash?

2. What happens when Sylvie and Ruth take a boat at the lake?

3. Where do Sylvie and Ruth spend the night when they leave the island?

4. What do the girls do when the weather turns warm?

5. How does Ruth respond to Lucille when she begs Ruth to leave Sylvie?

6. When the school sends letters to Sylvie about the girls' truancy, what does Sylvie do?

7. What is Sylvie's reaction to the town's concerns about her and Ruth?

8. When Lucille turns the lights on in the kitchen one night what does she see?

9. What does Sylvie do when Lucille asks about her husband?

10. Why does the sheriff visit Ruth and Sylvie and what do some neighboring women do about his visit?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What do you think Ruth and Lucille's life would look like if their mother had not committed suicide?

Essay Topic 2

Compare the physical setting of the novel, Fingerbone, with the events that have been shown in the sister's lives in chapter one. How does one reflect the other? What foreshadowing to the rest of the narrator's life, might be gleaned from the descriptions of Fingerbone and the types of events common in that town?

Essay Topic 3

Do you think the sheriff should have done something sooner about Sylvie and the girls? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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