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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. How does Marion respond to Susan's call in Chapter 13?

2. What white lie does Ellie tell her mother about why she will be home late in Chapter 20?

3. On whom does Marion blame Ellie's skipping class?

4. What does Miah’s father remind him about white neighborhoods?

5. In Part Two, Chapter 16, what is the weather like when Ellie and Miah meet at the library?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do both Miah and his father say about the afterlife?

2. What realization does Miah come to regarding his father, when he enters his father's home in this section (Chapters 11-15)?

3. About what does Miah think while he is in his room at his father's home?

4. How does Ellie describe her first visit to Brooklyn?

5. What leads to Ellie and Miah cutting class and heading to Central Park?

6. How does Ellie resond to Miah's request she come for dinner after practice?

7. How does Miah get out of having to spend time with his father's friends?

8. How does Chapter 14 end?

9. How does Ellie react to her mother's conversation with her sister Susan?

10. Why does Marion think Ellie skipped class?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Although If You Come Softly was published in 1998, how is it relevant to today? What elements of this book are timeless? How might this book stand the test of time? Why?

Essay Topic 2

The story ends with Ellie preparing for high school graduation and a future at a college of her choice but without the excitement of her peers. Unlike Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet" she does not die alongside Jeremiah, but how, in some ways is she like Juliet? How might she resemble Maria from "West Side Story?" Does she have more hope for her future than these two women? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

The author makes a point of frequently pointing out the fact that Ellie is a secular Jew. What is the reason for this? What is the significance of Ellie’s Star of David necklace, especially knowing she is not very religious? How might her ancestral connection with Judaism help her relate to Miah and his plight as a Black man?

(see the answer keys)

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