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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. Where did Lalla claim she was born?

2. What would wake Michael and his siblings on the last estate where they lived as children?

3. In one of the stories about Mervyn's train escapade, how many dogs was he leading on ropes?

4. In the middle of the 19th century, how old was the English officer who was ordered to organize the building of a road from Colombo to Kandy?

5. Where was the first place that Doris lived when she moved to England?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happened to the eggs that Willie Gratiaen imported from Australia?

2. Why did Lalla come to Kuttapitiya when Michael and his family lived there?

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

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

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

6. What was Michael's mother doing when David Grenier drowned?

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

8. Why couldn't Mervyn stand Lalla?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Michael was given insight into his thought process by a friend. Discuss how Michael's thought process worked.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Michael's purpose for writing "Running in the Family" and whether he achieved his purpose.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Mervyn's and Doris's courtship.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 760 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample