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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What holiday song makes Trethewey feel both joy and grief that she associates with her mother?
(a) All I Want for Christmas is You.
(b) White Christmas.
(c) This Christmas.
(d) Feliz Navidad.

2. What did Joel do the year that he finished technical school?
(a) Got arrested for drug possession.
(b) Started his own HVAC business.
(c) Moved to Mississippi.
(d) Divorced Gwendolyn.

3. What song became Trethewey's anthem in Part III?
(a) Dream a Little Dream of Me.
(b) The Impossible Dream.
(c) I Will Survive.
(d) I am Woman.

4. What did Trethewey use to mark her path home from the creek and golf course?
(a) Stones.
(b) Wood chips.
(c) Birdseed.
(d) Breadcrumbs.

5. Which president does Trethewey remember seeing on television in disgrace in Part III?
(a) Reagan.
(b) Nixon.
(c) Clinton.
(d) Bush.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did some of the staff at the family shelter say to Gwendolyn when she first got there with her children?

2. What did Trethewey hallucinate home from school with a high fever one day?

3. What did Joel want to do in Part III that Trethewey was dead set against?

4. What club did Trethewey want to join in Part III in school?

5. Which famous mystery books did Trethewey like in Part III?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Gwendolyn write in her notes that her marriage to Joel had happened in the first place?

2. What did Gwendolyn write was one of Joel's favorite things to do to torment her?

3. What did Gwendolyn do just weeks before her death that Trethewey revealed in Part IV?

4. What does Trethewey wonder about what might have changed the course of hers and her mother's lives in Part III?

5. What did Joel do that used to make Trethewey sob with fear and anxiety in Part III?

6. What news did Trethewey share with Gwendolyn and Joel that prompted Gwendolyn to stand up for her?

7. What did Gwendolyn write was the result of her marriage counseling for her?

8. How did Trethewey learn to figure out whether Joel was in the house or not in Part III?

9. How long was it before Trethewey had a chance to read her mother's notes that were taken from her briefcase by the police?

10. What did Trethewey tell her mother when Gwendolyn told her Joel wanted to adopt her?

(see the answer keys)

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