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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was the difference in age between George's mother and father at the time of their wedding?
(a) 8 years.
(b) 4 years.
(c) 10 years.
(d) 6 years.

2. What sort of seating is provided within the room at the museum where Francesco's painting is hung?
(a) None.
(b) Wooden boxes.
(c) Stairs.
(d) Benches.

3. At what time of the morning does H knock on George's door on New Year's Day, the first time she visits her home?
(a) Half past 1.
(b) 2.
(c) 3.
(d) Half past 4.

4. How many screens had George been viewing at once when her mother told her she was "a migrant of [her] own existence" (194)?
(a) 3.
(b) 5.
(c) 2.
(d) 4.

5. The fourth sentence of Camera states, "George's mother is" (163) what?
(a) Dead.
(b) Here.
(c) Angry.
(d) Dying.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which piece of information did George's mother forget during their visit to the museum, causing George to want to look it up on her mother's phone?

2. What is George's mother doing in the video from her childhood in which she appears with her own mother?

3. What is the title of the record George recalls once laughing about with her mother and father?

4. What had H done to a phone in retaliation when one of the young women in the school bathroom called her an "ethnic cow" (224)?

5. George and H develop a studying technique that involves what form of literature?

Short Essay Questions

1. Give an example of a piece of dialogue in How to Be Both that reflects the theme of connection.

2. For what reason is George unable to find out what songs her mother had danced to during her morning ritual?

3. What element of language does George come to see differently after her mother's death?

4. How did George's mother react to George's confession about Lisa?

5. What is the significance of George's shift away from considering a particular element of language to be very important?

6. What two contradictory terms does George use to describe the atmosphere of the Italian town called Ferrara that she had visited with her mother and brother Henry?

7. Explain the revelation that is finally made about the source of George's incessant feelings of "guilt and fury" (210) that result in repetitive thoughts.

8. Discuss an instance when Smith injects humor into a memory George has of her late mother.

9. What does George tell her father after he discovers her in the garden engaging in her daily ritual?

10. What does the shopping cart within the narrative represent in the scene at "the car park" (231)?

(see the answer keys)

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