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

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

3. Which of these statements about the local asylum is true?
(a) It went under right after Eddie's disappearance.
(b) It has a reputation for cruel treatment of patients.
(c) It has only male patients.
(d) It has a positive turnover rate.

4. What happens two days before the boy visits his parents in Chapter 6?
(a) His mother dies.
(b) The story of Eddie's death becomes public.
(c) A soldier is shot dead on their doorstep.
(d) The town gets snowed in.

5. Which character dies in 1959?
(a) Katie McIlhenny.
(b) Sergeant Burke.
(c) Crazy Joe.
(d) Tony McIlhenny.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What information does Katie have over her sister?

3. By the end of Chapter 6, how many of the boy's parents' children live at home?

4. When do the boy's parents marry?

5. Which one of these characters does not know the truth about Eddie's death in Chapter 5?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is the boy punished for by the Dean and what is his punishment?

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

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

5. What is important about the boy's reading of the story of Eddie's death in Irish?

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

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

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

9. 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?

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

(see the answer keys)

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