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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 wrong with the curtain in the kitchen?

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

3. What does Sylvie tell the sheriff in answer to his inquiry in question # 164?

4. How do the girls find out what certain sewing terms mean?

5. What does Sylvie urge Ruth to do about the objections?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What does Ruth think would have happened in her life if her mother had not killed herself?

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

5. What do they see and how do the neighboring women feel about Ruth and Sylvie's house?

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

7. What do the neighboring women do about the condition of Ruth's house?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why do you think Sylvie became frantic that Ruth might be taken from her? Support your opinion with evidence from the book.

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

Sylvie goes into a frantic mode to try and convince the town that she is capable of caring for Ruth. Do you think people can change that fast? Do you think people, once they are adults, can change at all? Support your position with illustrations from the book and your own life.

(see the answer keys)

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