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 does the author describe the sound Leaphorn hears at the beginning of Chapter 14?

2. What kind of ceremony are the women preparing for?

3. What is inside the gasoline cans?

4. Who does Witover call a crazy son of a bitch?

5. What animal greets the summer night?

Short Essay Questions

1. What one action seemed out of place for James Tso?

2. How do the kidnappers let the authorities know the hostages are still alive?

3. What new information does Witover give Leaphorn?

4. Why is the name Haas important?

5. How does Leaphorn find the groceries?

6. How does Leaphorn defeat the kidnappers?

7. What problems does Leaphorn have at the beginning of Chapter 13?

8. Why did Leaphorn go to the canyon in the first place?

9. What makes Leaphorn the perfect officer for the Tso case?

10. How did Tull and the others escape by helicopter?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The author wrote LISTENING WOMAN in the third person. Why do you think the author chose to write the story in the third person? How do you think the meaning of the story would change if the author wrote it in the first person?

Essay Topic 2

How accurate is Hillerman's representation of criminal behavior? How does he use the story and character to create his representation?

Essay Topic 3

LISTENING WOMAN is part of the detective genre.

1) What are the conventions of the genre in terms of character, language and plot?

2) In what way did the Leaphorn series help to set the template for similar books? Do modern books still use the ideas the author uses in Listening Woman?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 793 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample