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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. At which college is Boylan a writer-in-residence?

2. To what bar does Selena take Olivia?

3. What was the name of Lily’s imaginary spider?

4. With what kind of ice cream does Olivia ply Asher?

5. What author does Olivia suggest Braden read?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why, per Olivia, does honey prevent hangovers?

2. How does the novel gloss the term “chaser”?

3. In the novel, what is a steamed cheese?

4. Per Asher, what did Lily want to do with Yo-Yo Ma, and why?

5. What evidence of a skunk’s presence at her hives does Olivia have?

6. How is the process of Lily’s medical transition glossed by the surgeon who performed the surgical portion of her transition?

7. Why does Olivia note Ava is a better mother than she?

8. What biological reason does Olivia note for the survival of bees?

9. What difference does Lily note between herself in Asher in their early exchange of personal secrets?

10. How does Lily turn her match against Seidlarz at Dartmouth?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Assuming that Mad Honey should be standard reading for a given class and level, what class and what level? Why that class and why that level? What in the text suggests as much, and how does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

To what other writer’s work in your experience does Picoult and Boylan’s seem most similar? What makes the writers similar? What differentiates them? Overall, which do you regard as doing better at the craft of writing, and why?

Essay Topic 3

A lack of formal sectional—as opposed to chapter-by-chapter—division in the novel obliges a fairly arbitrary breakdown of the text for purposes of study and discussion. On what grounds might the current divisions be in place? Why and how are they appropriate to the text?

(see the answer keys)

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