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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 is the only reason Jack's father does not make good on his motorcycle fantasies?

2. What is Phoebe doing in the kitchen when Jack comes in?

3. What does Phoebe give Jack besides his lunch?

4. What time of day is it when Jack brings in the herd from the upper pasture?

5. What is the kitchen like in Jack's house?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Jack react when his father reads Jack's poems in public? Why does he feel the way he does about his father's poetry readings?

2. Jack has a nightly routine upon entering the house. What is that routine? What seems different to him on this evening?

3. When Dale looks up to the door and sees Jack, what does Dale say to his son? How does Jack respond to his father?

4. What conclusion does Jack come to about himself after realizing he does not love people as well as he should? How does he react to his own conclusions?

5. What does the reader realize when Yegudkin plays the French horn?

6. How old is Phoebe when she brings lunch out to the field? As she comes out to the field, how is she described by the narrator? What are her responsibilities?

7. Describe the scene in which Yegudkin opens the Alexander he has ordered for a student.

8. Describe Jack's uncles. What do they do on the farm? What do they look like? How do they behave?

9. How does Jack feel after asking Yegudkin if he will ever play the horn as well as the teacher? How does Yegudkin respond?

10. When Jack and Phoebe are having lunch and Jack does not want to say grace, he notices that Phoebe's eyes grow large with alarm. The narrator says, "and, though he did not know why, his heart gave a jump." Why does Jack's heart jump when he sees how frighted Phoebe is?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The narrator, when talking about the stories Jack tells aloud based on his fantasies, states "the lie was too obvious, the manipulation of shame to buy love." What does he mean by this statement? How does it apply to Dale Hawthorne?

Essay Topic 2

As he is working on the tractor after his brother's death, Jack sees the field he is plowing and sees "stones lay everywhere, yellowed in the sunlight, a field of misshapen skulls." Discuss this image.

Essay Topic 3

The narrator compares Jack working out his feeling while he works on the farm to acting on a stage. What is Jack's stage? What is his performance? Who is his audience?

(see the answer keys)

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