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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 old was Billy the first time he asked Agatha to marry him?

2. What does Georgie shoot on the riverbank after Agatha's funeral?

3. Who is Storm?

4. Who gives Agatha a book on Passenger Pigeons?

5. Where does Georgie camp on the second night of her journey?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Georgie's behave change after her encounter with the cougar?

2. Why does Georgie shoot gin bottles down by the river?

3. Why does Agatha step into the migrating flock of pigeons and spin?

4. How does Grandfather Bolte express compassion towards Georgie during the funeral?

5. What does Georgie notice about the feathers in the pigeoners camp?

6. Why does Ma cut a scrap of cloth from the corpse's body?

7. How does Georgie feel about Agatha's relationship with Billy?

8. What type of "horse" does Billy loan to Georgie and how does he force himself on her journey?

9. Why does Ma make Agatha a ball gown?

10. Why does Georgie describe the pigeon nesting as "a battlefield"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the fire of 1871 affect the residents of Placid? What lessons does the community learn about compassion during this time? Compare and contrast the community’s involvement in this human migration to that of the Passenger Pigeon migration that occurred earlier in the year.

Essay Topic 2

Describe how the Passenger Pigeon migration of 1871 impacted the members of the Burkhardt family and the town of Placid. How did the migration affect the town financially? Socially?

Essay Topic 3

Agatha once comments to her sister: “I don’t know how you can be so sure about putting creatures to death.” By the end of the novel, Georgie says she has stopped hunting because “Truth be told, I don’t find taking life - any life – palatable anymore.” Explain how and why Georgie’s attitude towards hunting has changed throughout the course of the novel.

(see the answer keys)

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