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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. Who interrupts the argument between Lynley and Helen?

2. What game does Stan want to play with Jimmy?

3. Where does Mrs. Whitelaw claim to have been?

4. Whose footsteps awaken Olivia?

5. Who does Mrs. Whitelaw say she hasn't seen in ten years?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Havers meet the young girl in chapter eleven?

2. Describe Olivia's dream about the National Front?

3. Why is it easy to believe that Jimmy could have killed his own father?

4. Why did Olivia decide to get back in contact with her mother?

5. What information does Mollinson give Lynley about the case in this section?

6. What new information do the police find out about Chris and Olivia in Chapter 16?

7. Why does Lynley take Jimmy to New Scotland Yard?

8. How does Lynley react when Jimmy falls into the river?

9. What new information does Lynley find out from Miriam in Chapter 18?

10. What information does Gariella give Lynley about the case?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why is Olivia's past so important to the story? In what way does it soften how the reader feels about the murderer?

Essay Topic 2

In what way does the novel suggest that helping people can lead to the neglect of others? How could people like Miriam have achieved more of a balance in their relationships?

Essay Topic 3

What does the novel suggest happens to people that are neglected by either friends or family? What are the difference between characters in the story who have been helped by others and characters in the story who have been neglected?

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