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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does his mother's body change after what happens to her in 1968?
(a) She loses a limb.
(b) She loses the ability to speak.
(c) She loses her hearing.
(d) She goes blind.

2. What happens to the boy's mother in 1968?
(a) She meets an old friend.
(b) She suffers a stroke.
(c) She gets in an accident.
(d) She goes insane.

3. What does the boy's mother do with the flower he gives her in Chapter 6?
(a) She throws it away.
(b) She puts it in a vase in the window.
(c) She eats it.
(d) She destroys it.

4. Who also visits the boy's parents as he is there in Chapter 6?
(a) The dead soldier's father.
(b) Tony.
(c) Crazy Joe.
(d) Sergeant Burke.

5. When do the boy's parents meet?
(a) 1933.
(b) 1945.
(c) 1928.
(d) 1930.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which character dies in 1959?

2. Why does the boy's father threaten Crazy Joe in Chapter 6?

3. How long are Bernadette and Ena kept in the shed until the boy's father finds them?

4. To what does Father Nugent compare murder?

5. When does the boy's mother find out the truth about Eddie?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does his mother's inability to speak because of her stroke affect her relationship with the boy?

2. What does the boy mean when he says he has become the "plague himself" by wanting to know what had "plagued her"?

3. Why does the boy's evening with Irene prove to be a disappointment?

4. Why does Katie's family refuse to attend Meave's wedding?

5. What scripture passages does the boy enjoy reading, but why do they trouble him?

6. Why does the boy's mother turn hostile toward him in Chapter 6?

7. How does the boy conclude that it was his mother who tipped off McIlhenny?

8. What does Crazy Joe know about the mystery surrounding Eddie's death?

9. Why does the boy narrator find it important to his relationship with his mother that he keep her secret?

10. Why is the boy again upset with his mother at the end of Chapter 5?

(see the answer keys)

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