View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do the children convince their father to let them borrow in The Verb To Kill?

2. The author of The Explosion in the Parlor is from where?

3. Who wrote The Book?

4. Orion is killed by what in the story with his name?

5. Who is the author of The Explosion in the Parlor?

Short Essay Questions

1. What takes place in Katya? Who are the characters and what actions do they take in the narrative?

2. How do the stories Emilie Plead Choose One Egg and The Grass-Eaters relate to one another?

3. What is the setting of Di Grasso? From whose perspective is the story told?

4. What central theme do Disappearing, A Lover's Ear, and Facing the Light all share? How are their characters similar?

5. What activity is the father of Las Papas doing in the narrative? What does he teach his son?

6. How does the central theme and structure of Looking for the Rain God relate to other stories in the collection?

7. Why does the central female character in Facing the Light send her servant away? What realization does she face?

8. Who are the characters in Emilie Plead Choose One Egg? What takes place in the story?

9. What does the protagonist in A Lover's Ear keep with her at all times? What takes place in the climax of the narrative?

10. What memory is related in the story Snow?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the literary technique of imagery, metaphor, symbolism, and motif and identify each in Blackberries and Don't You Blame Anyone. How is the theme of the frailty of human interconnectedness reflected in these works?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the setting of At the River and analyze the story's principle theme of age. How does this story's depiction of aging relate to others in the anthology?

Essay Topic 3

Describe the work and careers of Dino Buzzati and Stuart Dybek. How is each author's style reflected in the characters, settings, subjects and themes in The Falling Girl and Death of the Right Fielder?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 923 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample