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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 type of painting by L was the narrator drawn to that morning in Paris?

2. Which of L's relatives threatened his life in some way forcing him to run away from home when he was a teen?

3. What disease does M think L's father died from?

4. What type of business did L's family own?

5. What was the narrator doing in Paris when she noticed a sign with a painting by L?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does L behave at the harbor town when M and Tony first meet him?

2. What do readers learn of L's backstory in the fourth chapter?

3. What did Tony find after clearing the adjacent land he bought near the marsh? What did he do there?

4. What does the narrator say her first experience with L coincided with? What did she think L's visit would do in terms of her recovery?

5. What does Tony say to M when she gets angry with him after L says he is not staying with them?

6. Whose portrait did L tell M he wanted to paint? How did she feel that he did not wish to paint her? What did she say to him about this?

7. What did the narrator do on her final night in Paris and with whom?

8. How old was L when he first became famous? What did his critics find shocking about his early work?

9. How does the narrator describe the man she met on the train in Paris? What was he doing? Why did she not say something?

10. Who is the narrator speaking to at the start of the novel? What does she say happened while on a train in Paris?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Read a review of Second Place. Write an essay about how this review impacted your own views or understanding of the story.

Essay Topic 2

Choose two characters and discuss their similarities and differences. What is each character's role in Second Place?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay analyzing Cusk's commentary on art in Second Place. How is art important to the story? How does it affect the narrative? Use textual evidence to explain your analysis.

(see the answer keys)

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