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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. How does Ben gloss over the incident with Pickles?

2. Whose pending marriage is discussed among Willa and Ben's family?

3. Who is the funeral for in chapter one?

4. What does the man with the bloody knife say?

5. Why does Willa feel guilty?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do Nate, Adam and Ben do after the party and the discovery outside?

2. What does Tess insist Willa do when she returns from checking on the deer in the woods, and what interrupts that?

3. What do Ben, Tess and Lily discuss over soup, and what does Ben point out in their discussion?

4. What is the killer feeling after he kills Pickles and what does he decide at that point?

5. With what is Willa have trouble with the ranch hands, who takes offense at her, and what does he do about it?

6. Why is Ben's mother, Sarah, concerned about him and what does he tell her?

7. Where does Tess go after the funeral, who is her mother, and what is her mother like? Why did her mother marry her father?

8. What does Ham say to Willa about the ranch and her in Chapter 16?

9. What does Willa realize when her sisters tell her they are staying after Pickles was murdered?

10. Why do Tess, Lily and Adam ride out in the snow, what do they see, why do they argue, and what interrupts their argument?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Montana Sky is considered a romance/mystery, a sub-genre of fiction. Discuss the following:

1. Define genre and then specifically romance/mystery.

2. What do you think is the difference between a romance novel and a romance/mystery?

3. Many in the world of academe do not see mystery as a serious genre, that its primary purpose is entertainment and not "worthy" of being studied by serious students of literature. Respond to that idea.

Essay Topic 2

Often, authors will write about "what they know," and sometimes knowing a little about the author makes the books more interesting. Discuss the following:

1. Research and give a brief biographical sketch of Nora Roberts.

2. What in Robert's background may have helped her in writing Montana Sky? What may have influenced the way she depicts various characters and scenes?

3. Do you think there is always some of the author's own life in his/her novels? Why or why not? Give examples.

Essay Topic 3

Jack Mercy married three times and considered each marriage a failure when his wife had a daughter. His last daughter lived at the ranch with him, trying unsuccessfully to earn her father's approval.

1. Do you believe the fact that Jack Mercy lived on a ranch in Montana influenced his intense desire for a son? In other words, do you think a doctor in New York City would have been more likely to not care whether his child was a boy or girl? Why or why not? Use examples from the book to support your answer.

2. In many places in the past, and even in the present, female babies were often killed or left out in the elements to die. This has social as well as moral repercussions, for example, in China at present, males are having a difficult time finding a wife because the ratio of men to women is so skewed from female infanticide. Discuss the moral or social implications of cultures which prefer male to female babies. Use examples from the book to help illustrate your answer.

3. In many countries where there is a bias towards male children, even the mother participants in that bias. Discuss the implications for the mental and emotional health of females raised in a culture where such bias exists.

(see the answer keys)

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