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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. Who is the first person to call Bernie when she wakes up in Chapter 10?

2. What word in Chapter 6 refers to freedom from the endless cycle of personal reincarnations and suffering in Hinduism?

3. Where did Officer Bernie drive from for the Monday meeting in Chapter 1?

4. Who is Bernie’s sister that is described in Chapter 2 as “on the road to becoming a lost young woman”?

5. Where does Bernie’s mother’s sister live that she describes talking to in Chapter 4?

Short Essay Questions

1. What information about Leaphorn does Bernie relate to the FBI agent that arrives on the crime scene in Chapter 1?

2. What do Bernie and Chee make of the phone call from Louisa in Chapter 5?

3. Who is Mrs. Benally’s son? Who does Mrs. Benally say her son was with on Monday morning in Chapter 3?

4. How do Jackson Benally’s story and alibi change during his interrogation in Chapter 8?

5. What reference to the novel’s title appears in Chapter 4? How is “Spider Woman” described?

6. What information does Bernie learn from the office manager at the police station in Chapter 7?

7. What does Agent Cordova relate when he calls Bernie in Chapter 9? How does Chee respond?

8. What information does Garrison Tsosie relate to Chee when he is questioned in Chapter 10?

9. To what different locations does Officer Chee go in order to track down Garrison Tsosie in Chapter 10?

10. What does Bernie learn from Joe Leaphorn’s neurologist in Chapter 6?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the events of the shooting that occurs in Chapter 1. Where is Bernie in relation to Leaphorn and the shooter? How much time passes during the crime? What does Bernie do when the shooting occurs? Where does the shooter flee?

Essay Topic 2

Culture and Tradition in Spider Woman’s Daughter

a. Discuss the ways that Navajo culture differs from white culture as seen in the novel. How do Bernie and Chee and the other Navajo characters view white and white traditions?

b. How do the themes of culture and tradition apply to the Anasazi pottery and the Navajo rugs that are illustrated throughout the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the themes of tradition and culture in Spider Woman’s Daughter. How is tradition perceived by Bernie and Chee and others within the Navajo Nation? How does Darleen differ in her views of tradition and culture? In what ways do the traditions and cultures of the Navajos clash with those of the whites in the story?

(see the answer keys)

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