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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. In the passage that describes the babies trying to get into the kitchen, how does the narrator's diction create a comic effect?

2. After they leave the Markeys' house, why does John watch to make sure that Edith has reached their own walkway?

3. What technique is used on page 3 when John's life is described as "a series of struggles up a series of rugged hills"?

4. What is comical about the fight between Joe and John?

5. What is the meaning of "amity" as it is used on page 5?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Edith see when she first arrives at the baby party?

2. What does Mrs. Markey say about Ede when she and Edith are first talking, and how does Edith react?

3. How do the mothers react to Ede, and how does she react to the party?

4. What does John tell Edith about how he ended up fighting Joe, and what is the truth?

5. How do John and Joe end up fighting?

6. What does John Andros enjoy about being a father?

7. What does John Andros see as the drawbacks to being a father?

8. What does Edith do each weekday afternoon, and why?

9. How does Edith prepare Ede for the party, and why?

10. What time does Edith Andros arrive at the baby party, and why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

John and Joe ride the train together each weekday to their jobs in the city. What is the significance of this? Consider what happens in the city in this story, versus what happens in the suburbs. Consider the roles of men and women in the story, and their physical locations as the action of the story unfolds. Write an essay in which you make and defend a claim about the significance of the fact that these two men commute to work together each day. Support your ideas with evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the significance of the story's final two paragraphs. Defend your arguments with evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the narrator's attitude toward the parenting styles of the characters in the story. Defend your ideas with quoted textual evidence.

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