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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. What happens to the boy's father right before he retires?
(a) He suffers a heart attack.
(b) He dies.
(c) He reveals everything about Eddie's death.
(d) He goes missing.

2. Where is Eddie interrogated?
(a) At the Donegal farmhouse.
(b) In the shed.
(c) At the distillery.
(d) Behind the house.

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

4. An army chaplain comes to the school to talk to the boys about what?
(a) Communism.
(b) The plague.
(c) The war.
(d) Enlisting.

5. The boy's mother's depression causes her to do what?
(a) Have panic attacks.
(b) Throw things.
(c) Sleepwalk.
(d) Stop talking.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is his mother's response when the boy asks her what she wants for her birthday?

2. Where does the boy go with Moran in Chapter 4?

3. After his mother tells him much of the story of Eddie's death at the end of Chapter 5, why is the boy still hurt?

4. When do Eddie's parents die?

5. What does the boy's mother say out-of-the-blue while he is washing dishes with his father?

Short Essay Questions

1. What causes the boy to realize his mother doesn't care what he reveals to anyone?

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

3. How is the boy's mother's interpretation of the story of Sean and the baby sock a reflection on her own relationship with Tony McIlhenny and her role in Eddie's murder?

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

5. What does Father Nugent talk to the boy narrator about and why does it make him uncomfortable?

6. Why does the boy's mother begin to treat him unkindly?

7. In what ways are the problems of Northern Ireland just beginning as the problems the boy faces are now ending?

8. The boy's mother is saddened throughout the entire novel, but why does her depression set in after her grandfather dies?

9. What does the boy's mother say that upsets Katie?

10. What does Sergeant Burke reveal about Eddie's death and Tony's involvement?

(see the answer keys)

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