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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 does Kate eat on the last afternoon of her life?

2. What is Ellen's answer when the prosecutor asks if she killed Kate?

3. Where is Ellen when Kate dies?

4. Who is the attorney who defends Ellen for the majority of the trial?

5. What kind of earrings is Teresa wearing?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Ellen say when Jeff asks if hallucinations are a side-effect of Kate's medication?

2. Why does Ellen say that no one acknowledges the ribbons on her mother's wheelchair wheels?

3. What is the conversation Ellen and Kate have when Hally gives Kate the photo of her newborn baby?

4. What is the memory Ellen has about a tree lighting event the first year her mother was one of the Minnies?

5. What information is presented about Ellen's paternal grandparents.

6. What is Jon's role in Ellen's arrest?

7. Describe some of the reactions to Ellen's arrest.

8. Why does Ellen ask Jules not to come to the funeral?

9. What is George's response when Kate says she loves Christmas? What does he mean?

10. What does Ellen do when she and Jeff go to the cemetery?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Ellen's relief that her mother's suffering is over is seen by some as an admission of guilt, especially when she's able to sleep so soundly her first night in jail. Describe Ellen's reaction to her mother's death, to her arrest and to her trial. Which of the reactions is most believable? Which is least? Why doesn't Ellen tell that she believes her father gave her mother the morphine? Why doesn't her father come forward?

Essay Topic 2

Who is Teresa? What is her role in Ellen's life? Who i s Jules? What is her role in Ellen's life? Which of the two characters is more important to Ellen? Why?

Essay Topic 3

Kate doesn't want to have to have Ellen's help with personal hygiene such as bathing and dressing. Explain Kate's attitude. When the time comes that Kate has to call on Ellen to help her out of the bath, Ellen does so without complaint. Why is Kate reluctant to call on her routinely after that? What does Ellen say about how their relationship would change at that point? Is she correct?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 789 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample