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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 does Rufus say about the book Dana brings to the past?

2. Why does Rufus say he lied to Dana about sending her letters to Kevin?

3. Who is Alice's husband?

4. Why is Dana's blouse stuck to her back in Part III?

5. What are the thick scars some of the slaves get after beatings?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Dana bring from her time that helps Rufus immensely?

2. In Part IV, how long has Kevin been alone in the 1800s?

3. Why does Dana get beaten so badly in Part IV?

4. Why does Tom Weylin whip Dana, beating her badly?

5. How does Kevin's family react to his marrying Dana, a Black woman?

6. In Part III, what is one thing that scares Dana about Rufus?

7. What is different between marriages between slaves and those between whites in the 1800s?

8. Why does only Dana return to 1976 after both she and Kevin travel back to the 1800s together?

9. In Part III, how is Rufus's life in danger when Dana is called back to see him as an adult?

10. What does Dana convince Rufus to do for Alice and Isaac because of his violence against them both?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Butler's decision to narrate the story from the first-person perspective affect the reader's experience of the novel? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 2

Why do you think Dana and Kevin decide to travel to Maryland and trace the history of the people they interacted with through time-travel? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 3

Why does Dana think she and Kevin adjust so relatively quickly to the cultural expectations of them and their roles in the 1800s? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

(see the answer keys)

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