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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. When Michael went back to Ceylon and the tea estate, how many years had it been since his mother had been to the tea estate?

2. To how many hospitals did Lalla dedicate her body after her death?

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

4. What costume did Doris wear to the Galle Face Dance?

5. What year was the car that was in Aunt Dolly's garden?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Mervyn nearly kill his three older children?

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

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

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

5. When Mervyn was in his twenties, why did he stop a train ten miles out of Colombo?

6. What was Michael's Aunt Dolly like?

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

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

9. How did Mervyn deter Lalla from ravaging the garden at Kuttapitiya?

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

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 referred to Lalla as an eccentric. Discuss eccentricity and why Lala was considered to be eccentric.

Essay Topic 3

Michael told how snakes littered the family home at Rock Hill. Discuss snakes and their behavior in Ceylon and Rock Hill.

(see the answer keys)

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