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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 did Connie see on her mother's desk after returning home late one night?

2. What did Connie see when she dropped off Charlotte's medical records at Hastings' office?

3. What kind of jury did Hastings want?

4. What was the group on the courthouse steps doing when the Danforths arrived?

5. Who admitted during cross-examination that Sibyl did not know about Charlotte's medical history?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Connie continue to read other entries in Sibyl's journal after reading the one she found the notebook opened to?

2. Why did Connie seem concerned about the relationship between Sibyl and Hastings?

3. What does the term "vagaled" mean?

4. Why did the prosecutor put the state trooper on the stand to testify?

5. Why did many of Sibyl's clients attend the trial with their infants?

6. Why did Connie's reading the journal show the reader that her relationship with Sibyl had changed?

7. Why was Hastings' cross-examination of the midwife turned Ob-Gyn important?

8. What was Connie's reaction to seeing the word "vagal" written on a conference room board at Hastings' place of business?

9. Why did Hastings involve blood evidence and home birth experts before Sibyl was even charged?

10. Why was Hastings' winning of a motion to review Charlotte's medical records important?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why would Connie, who had clearly lost some trust in her mother, choose to remove the damning journal entries to keep her mother from being convicted? What does this choice say about Connie? What does it say about her relationship with Sibyl?

Essay Topic 2

What is Hastings' relationship with Sibyl like? What does he do that reveals he has stronger feelings for Sibyl? Why are his feelings toward Sibyl important? How do they affect the plot?

Essay Topic 3

How is the motif of childbirth portrayed in Midwives? Which characters are comfortable with childbirth? Which characters are not? Do any of the characters change in their views toward childbirth by the end of the novel?

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