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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. Which of the following does Percival eat with Peter and his family?

2. With whom does Peggy initially voice concern?

3. What college had Tommy attended?

4. Which of the following does Percival eat?

5. What flowers does Nell note in Central Park?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the narrator agree to go to Carnegie Hall with Tommy?

2. Why had Nell’s biological father started bringing weekly flowers to Peggy?

3. How does Tommy get seats at Carnegie Hall?

4. What does the narrator note Tommy wore to propose to her?

5. Why does Nell initially laugh off Peggy’s suspicions?

6. What does the narrator of “The Bootlegger” note would be her preferred downtime activity?

7. In what does Percival situate the origin of his family’s fortunes?

8. Why does Percival assert that admission to the Metropolitan Museum is for a “recommended” fee?

9. How does Percival get into clubs of which he is not a member?

10. To what does Percival ascribe the decline of appetites with age?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In “I Will Survive,” as well as in some other places in the text, the narrator directly addresses the reader: “If this summary strikes you as rather cold and abrupt, imagine how it sounded to Peggy” (113). What effect does the direct address have on the reader, and how is the effect achieved?

Essay Topic 2

Overall, how does the anthology present the use of alcohol and other drugs? What significance accrues to that presentation—or, if no significance accrues to that presentation, to what effect is the presentation made?

Essay Topic 3

To what other writer’s work in your experience does Towles’s seem most similar? What makes the writers similar? What differentiates them? Overall, which do you regard as doing better at the craft of writing, and why?

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This section contains 559 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample