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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. The narrator claims that "it is in our idleness, in our ______, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top."

2. What does the narrator see that makes her laugh when looking out the window at the Oxbridge luncheon?

3. According to the narrator, in relation to her husband, what was a woman prior to the women's movement?

4. How many children did "Mrs. Seton" have?

5. Which word best describes the food at the Oxbridge luncheon?

Short Essay Questions

1. What motives does Woolf reveal for her lecture?

2. Even though the narrator does not care for Carmichael's writing, what does the narrator say Carmichael has accomplished?

3. What happens once Mary Beton/the narrator's narrative ends?

4. How does Woolf preempt the excuses she anticipates hearing from women who are not writing?

5. As the narrator reaches in her research the fiction of her contemporaries, what progress has been made by women writers?

6. What does Woolf encourage women to ignore when setting out to write?

7. What does the narrator say about measuring a woman's accomplishments?

8. What, according to the narrator as she reflects on her financial situation, will eat away at the spirit over time?

9. What is the dinner at Fernham like?

10. Where, according to the narrator, does genius like that of Shakespeare's come from?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What does the narrator seem to say about relationships, both between characters and real people? What do we seek in relationships, according to the narrator?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Discuss the evolution of women as the narrator takes the reader through it. Include a discussion of women as characters as well as writers.

(see the answer keys)

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