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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 type of music signaled Charlie's worst type of mood to the girls?

2. What prompted the fight between Charlie and Pete on Mary's tenth birthday?

3. How did Mary hear the news that her family had inherited money from Grandma Moore's estate?

4. Who was the first member of the family to see Grandma Moore's dead body?

5. How did Lecia react when she heard the news that Grandma Moore had passed away?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happened during the fight between Mary and Big Bertha?

2. Where was Mary when she was sexually assaulted, and what was her reaction to the event?

3. What relationship did Mary have with her grandmother when the pair was living together during Mary's childhood?

4. What image did Mary see when she went to the hospital to visit her grandmother after the surgery on her leg?

5. What conflict arose regarding Pete's medical insurance when he suffered his stroke?

6. What behaviors did Grandma Moore witness in the Karr girls as children that deeply disturbed her?

7. What did Mary believe to be the most traumatic memory of her childhood?

8. What major event took place in Mary's life while driving to the World's Fair in Seattle?

9. What information did the girls receive from their father about their mother's whereabouts after she was committed to the psychiatric ward?

10. How did Charlie react to the news that Mary's school wanted to advance her through the reading program at an accelerated rate?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout the memoir, Charlie has various different relationships with men. Choose two romantic relationships Charlie engaged in over the course of the memoir and compare / contrast the effects of these relationships on the lives of Charlie's children. Do you think Charlie was good at choosing men for herself? Why or why not? Be sure to include at least two examples from the text that you believe help strengthen your arguments.

Essay Topic 2

After the divorce, Mary and Lecia adopt very different coping mechanisms to deal with their emotional disappointment in their parents. First, describe Mary's emotional coping method while dealing with abandonment issues from her father. Then, compare / contrast that to Lecia's coping method while dealing with abandonment issues from her father. What is the same about their coping methods? What is different? How do these two coping methods come to a head on Father's Day? Be sure to include at least two examples from the text that you believe help strengthen your arguments.

Essay Topic 3

Throughout much of Mary's childhood, Charlie is deeply depressed. First, explain what traumatic event first sparked Charlie's deep depression. Then, give at least two examples from the text that you believe best exhibit the ways Charlie expressed her depression. Finally, explain how Charlie's depression affected the way Mary learned to deal with her emotions. How do the effects of Charlie's depression still affect Mary today?

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