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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 explanation does Jack give Phoebe at the beginning of lunch that puts her at rest?
2. What finally ruins Jack's fantasy stories when he is driving the tractor in the field?
3. What is the victim riding when he falls off and is run over?
4. How does the narrator describe Jack's mother before the accident?
5. What is Jack referring to when he says "it was what life ought to be, what he'd once believed it was."?
Short Essay Questions
1. What does Jack think about as he prepares the cows for milking after realizing why Phoebe wanted him to say grace? How does he feel as these thoughts enter his mind?
2. Jack's father has been gone over three weeks. In what position does Jack find himself? Have his responsibilities changed? Who is he working with now?
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. In this story, Jack and Phoebe have very traditional roles. What are the roles each play?
5. What is Jack's first reaction when he sees his father and what is occurring in the living room? Why can he not act on his impulse to run?
6. Describe Jack's uncles. What do they do on the farm? What do they look like? How do they behave?
7. Jack is "touched" by his sister's presence at lunchtime in the field. Why is this? What does he notice about her?
8. Jack begins to play the French horn in earnest. Why does he do this? Where does he practice?
9. What do we know about Yegudkin's wife? What does she look like? What does she do?
10. Jack and Phoebe have an interchange about saying grace over lunch. What is that interchange, and why is important to the story?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Both Jack and his father are artists. How do each of them use their art to express their sadness?
Essay Topic 2
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 3
Although this is a piece of fiction, Gardner did live on a farm and did run over his brother with a tractor when they were young. Does it help or hinder to know the basis of this story is part of the writer's experience?
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This section contains 1,113 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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