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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 tell Ruth about the people on the island?

2. How does Ruth feel about Sylvie trying to change?

3. Why do Ruth and Lucille stop going to school in March?

4. Why can't Ruth hear Lucille when her sister talks to her?

5. What happens while Ruth is looking at the frost?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does Ruth feel about hanging out with the girls from school?

3. What does Sylvie do when she and Ruth stop at an abandoned farmhouse on the island?

4. Why does Sylvie wake Ruth up before dawn after Lucille has left?

5. What does Lucille do about the sewing after fighting with Ruth?

6. In Chapter 10, what does Sylvie do to continue to change enough to keep Ruth?

7. What do Sylvie and Ruth do the morning they return from the island?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

By chapter five, we are beginning to see a picture of Sylvie as a person who does not seem to pay much attention to everyday life. What about Sylvie seems strange to you and does her strangeness make her more or less attractive to you? Why?

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

Ruth and Lucille's mother commits suicide in the first chapter. How do you think this event affected Ruth and Lucille's emotional and mental health? What do you think could cause a mother to commit suicide with two small children waiting for her at home?

(see the answer keys)

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