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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. In Sam's opinion, the writer Thoreau was what?

2. What artist has a video on MTV that Sam recognizes as she pours herself a Pepsi while talking to her mother?

3. What makes Irene's hair look like Mrs. Biggs' forsythia bush?

4. Sam finds a year's worth of what that had been saved for the Boy Scouts in the basement?

5. What does Sam give Moon Pie to gnaw on while she talks to her mother?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Sam think would have happened if her parents had waited to have her until Dwayne got back from the war?

2. How does Sam react as they are getting closer to the Vietnam Memorial?

3. Why does a curious pleasure steal over Sam as she hears someone approaching on the boardwalk at Caewood's Pond?

4. How does Lonnie feel about Sam's car and how does Sam respond to his feelings?

5. What do the arms of the willow tree shadowed on her wall remind Sam of?

6. How does Sam feel about cats and what does Dawn say about them?

7. Why does Sam have trouble caring about her father?

8. Why does Sam make her mother's bed up with two fitted bottom sheets?

9. How determined is Grandma Smith to go to Florida?

10. According to Sam, what do girls, boys, women, and talk about and how are men different?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sam is resentful of her mother's new baby. Explain why.

Essay Topic 2

The house Sam lives in is falling apart. Explain how the house is a metaphor for in this book.

Essay Topic 3

The television show, M*A*S*H, is mentioned throughout the book. Why do Sam and Emmett watch it religiously? How does it strengthen the bond between them?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 654 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample