View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who questions whether Camilo has a clear vision of Rosaura?

2. What does Mrs. Milagros suggest that Camilo do?

3. Who gives Camilo his letter in Part I, Chapter 4?

4. At the outset of the Part I, Chapter 2, how old is Mrs. Milagros' youngest child?

5. Who appears at Camilo's studio at the beginning of Part I, Chapter 5?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are Mrs. Milagros' first impressions of Camilo? How does she describe them?

2. How does Mrs. Milagros react when she reads Camilo's letters? What does she tell Camilo?

3. What new restoration project does Camilo describe in Part I, Chapter 5? How did he receive this work?

4. How does Mrs. Milagros first see an image of Rosaura?

5. In Part I, Chapter 3, how does Mrs. Milagros describe the contents of the letters that Camilo receives and who they are from?

6. Why does Camilo claim that he has no family? How does this affect his initial meeting with Mrs. Milagros?

7. What opinion and advice does Mrs. Milagros give Camilo about his love?

8. How does Mrs. Milagros describe Camilo settling into the boarding house?

9. What is Camilo's arrangement to work on the new restoration project described in Part I, Chapter 5?

10. How does the author create an immediate sense of urgency and suspense in Part I, Chapter 1?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What people and things are presented as unimportant but turn out to be central to the novel's mystery?

Essay Topic 2

Mrs. Milagros and David Reguel present very different pictures of the same thing -- life in Mrs. Milagros' boarding house -- especially with respect to the different personalities that reside at the house. Compare and contrast Milagros and Reguel's descriptions of the boarding house, the people who live there, and the crime that is under investigation. Is there one objective reality or are all perspectives valid? Which picture of reality do you think the author believes?

Essay Topic 3

Mrs. Milagros opens the book describing the assumptions that she has about another character before really getting to know him. Her assumptions prove wrong on several points. These are shown to be wrong in her own narrative as well as in the contrasting narratives of other characters. How do the assumptions of others limit the character's options? How do they shape relationships? List the principal assumptions that shape the story.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,239 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample