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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 are the two subjects Smith says she and her masseur talk about while she gets a massage?

2. Where does the young man work in “A Hovering Young Man”?

3. What does the woman in “An Elder at the 98 Bus Stop” tell Smith she is going to the doctor’s to discuss?

4. Smith says that if you were to ask Barbara what she might be doing on a particular holiday, what is one possible answer she might give?

5. Who does Smith credit for teaching her “liberty” (91)?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Smith know the woman at the bus stop who approaches her must have known her from long ago?

2. Who is Beck from “A Woman with A Little Dog”?

3. What does Smith say her feelings have always been about her ability to survive an apocalypse?

4. What does Smith find interesting about the way in which the man with the sign projects his hate?

5. How does Smith describe the concept of British “class contempt” (74) in “Post-script: Contempt as a Virus”?

6. What does Barbara say to Smith just before she is heading her rental car to leave the city?

7. What does Smith say about the “ideal, rent-controlled city dweller” (49)?

8. Why does Smith say, despite her issues with institutions, that she is glad Cy is connected to one?

9. How does Smith describe the way in which Barbara and other women in the city get older?

10. Where are Smith and her husband going while they wait to fly to London?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay exploring the pandemic’s significance on each story in Intimations. Include how the pandemic affects the overall mood of the collection.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay analyzing Cy’s character in “A Hovering Young Man.” What does he represent and how does the pandemic affect Cy? What is Smith’s tone in regards to the effect the pandemic has on people like Cy?

Essay Topic 3

In the final line of Intimations, Smith says that her “physical and moral cowardice have never really been tested, until now” (97). Write an essay exploring that line and including examples of this from the stories in Intimations.

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