View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did Calvin's adoptive parents die?

2. How old was Elizabeth's brother when he committed suicide?

3. Who are always watching Elizabeth and Calvin at lunch at the Hastings Research Institute?

4. What was the name of the librarian at the Catholic orphanage where Calvin grew up?

5. Where did Elizabeth's mother go after Elizabeth's father went to prison?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Elizabeth hit a man with her handbag in an elevator in Chapter 15?

2. Who is Harriet Sloane, and how do she and Elizabeth meet?

3. How did Calvin learn that he was adopted?

4. Why does Elizabeth believe in Chapter 6, that she has never been defined by what she does?

5. How do Madeline's lunches her mother packs compare to other children's lunches they bring from home?

6. How does Elizabeth learn that she is pregnant?

7. How do Elizabeth and Calvin get a dog, and how does he happen to be a stray?

8. Why was Elizabeth not accepted for a doctorate program?

9. How is Calvin's headstone damaged?

10. In Chapter 10, what is the only time that Six-Thirty bolts when walking?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Defamiliarization is a literary technique that presents common things in an unfamiliar or strange way. How does Garmus use defamiliarization when she describes the funeral from Six-Thirty's perspective? How does this use of defamiliarization allow readers to have a different perspective and see the funeral in a unique way?

Essay Topic 2

Women were inhibited by gender roles in the 1950s and 1960s. How has Elizabeth been limited by gender roles? How has her ability to pursue her career suffered because of gender roles?

Essay Topic 3

What a reader knows about events and characters is determined by the point of view in a book. What is the point of view in the book? How does the point of view influence what readers know about events and characters? How does it help readers connect with and understand characters?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,064 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample