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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 was the name of Lalla's head milkman?

2. How much did Michael's Aunt Dolly weigh?

3. Where did Doris run a small dance and theater school?

4. How much cooler was it at the tea estate than it was in Colombo?

5. How long did Michael say it would take for the tea estate to turn to jungle if it was left alone?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Doris do when she was leaving Mervyn and he threw the car key into the tea bushes?

2. How did Lalla die?

3. Why was Mervyn banned from the Ceylon Railroads after 1943?

4. What did Doris love about Mervyn, even after the divorce?

5. How did Michael get a bath when he was five and attending a boarding school?

6. What did a fortune-teller predict when Doris left Ceylon in 1949?

7. Why did it take so long to drive from Colombo to the tea estate?

8. Why couldn't Mervyn stand Lalla?

9. What did Doris coach the three older children to do when Mervyn lapsed into one of his alcoholic states?

10. How did Michael describe the only picture he had of his parents together?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the elements of the poem, "Sweet Like a Crow," including the type of language, imagery, and figurative devices used by the poet.

Essay Topic 2

Michael said that wildlife stormed and crept into homes. Discuss how wildlife crept into homes and how they affected the occupants of those homes.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Mervyn's and Doris's courtship.

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