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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 does a woman need in order to write fiction, according to Woolf?

2. What poet does the narrator recite to herself when leaving the luncheon, thinking that men must have hummed at parties before the war?

3. Who does the narrator find herself envious of in the museum?

4. According to the narrator's research, what practice is common in the treatment of women throughout history?

5. The narrator finds that the woman "pervades _________ from cover to cover;"

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator ultimately decide to lecture about instead of "women and fiction?"

2. According to the narrator, what challenges will Mary Carmichael face as a writer?

3. What does the narrator tell her audience is the reason that they can see the treatment of women through history as so ridiculous?

4. What does the narrator ask the reader to call her?

5. What does the phrase "Chloe liked Olivia" set the narrator on a discussion about?

6. What does the narrator find when she returns to reading fiction by a man?

7. Why is the beadle upset that Mary is walking on the grass of the men's college?

8. What tone is pervasive throughout the poem by Lady Winchilsea that the narrator recites?

9. What does the narrator attribute to the insanity of a woman like Judith?

10. In conversing with a friend who works at the women's college, what does the narrator discover about the financial difference between women and men?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the major differences between Oxbridge and Fernham as they relate to the larger theme of the inequality of the sexes during the time period examined by the narrator. What other examples of disparate treatment does the narrator provide? How is inequality evident throughout the time periods readers are exposed to in the novel?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the reasons why women were more successful, initially, in writing novels than in writing poetry.

Essay Topic 3

Describe the different ways that the narrator reveals women are objectified. For example, how are they simply mirrors for men? In what other ways are women presented as inactive objects?

(see the answer keys)

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