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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where is Sandra’s grandmother coming to visit from in “Offerings”?
(a) Little Rock
(b) Paducah
(c) Atlanta
(d) Lubbock

2. The narrator says in “Old Things,” “After her husband died, [Cleo] moved to town, to a little brick house with a dishwasher and” what?
(a) Wall-to-wall carpet
(b) Cherry-stained hardwood floors
(c) Granite countertops in the kitchen
(d) A yard that needed mowing

3. Where do Leroy and Norma Jean live in “Shiloh”?
(a) Kentucky
(b) Alabama
(c) Arkansas
(d) Texas

4. How many children does Dolores have in “The Climber”?
(a) 4
(b) 2
(c) 3
(d) 5

5. What did Sandra’s maternal grandmother die from in “Offerings”?
(a) Childbed Fever
(b) Lung cancer
(c) A brain aneurism
(d) Tuberculosis

Short Answer Questions

1. As Louise progresses in her paintings of watermelons in “Still Life with Watermelon,” she begins varying the backgrounds, “and sometimes now she throws in unusual decorative objects—a few candles, a soap dish,” and what?

2. How is the preacher’s jacket described in “The Climber”?

3. What newscaster does Cleo watch as she listens to Rita Jean on the phone in the beginning of “Old Things”?

4. How many children do Mary Lou and Mack have in “The Rookers”?

5. The narrator says in “Detroit Skyline, 1949” that when she was young she lived “not far from the U.S. highway that took so many Southerners northward to work in the auto industry just after” what war?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are Cleo’s thoughts on Shirley in “Old Things”?

2. How is Sandra’s mother’s relationship with Grandmother Stamper described in “Offerings”?

3. What appointment is Dolores worried about in “The Climber”?

4. How does the narrator describe the final years of Sandra’s paternal grandfather in “Offerings”?

5. What constitutes the basic plot line of “Shiloh”? What is the story essentially about?

6. How is Peggy Wilson described in “Still Life with Watermelon”? What is her relationship to Louise Milsap?

7. What happens when Louise goes to meet with Mr. Priddle in “Still Life with Watermelon”?

8. From what narrative perspective is “Detroit Skyline, 1949” related? How does this narrative point of view compare with that of “Shiloh” and “The Rookers”?

9. How does Linda respond when Cleo implies she’s old by saying “I’m not sixteen anymore” in “Old Things”?

10. How are Louise’s watermelon paintings described in the beginning of “Still Life with Watermelon”?

(see the answer keys)

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