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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 stripped and examined by kids as part of a game?

2. Where do Jack and Julie put Mother's body?

3. Who gives a card with two pound notes as a birthday present?

4. Why is Jack told to stop his activity in the beginning of Chapter 4?

5. Where do the men drop the delivery they take to Jack's house?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when it is Jack's turn in the game he plays with his sisters on the night their parents argue in Chapter 1?

2. How does Jack release tension in the garden at the beginning of Chapter 4? Why does he stop?

3. What happens to the garden after Father's first heart attack?

4. Describe the social life of Jack's family.

5. Where does the family celebrate Jack's birthday and why?

6. How do the siblings tell Tom that Mother has died?

7. What do Jack and his sisters do for fun on the night their parents argue in Chapter 1?

8. After they go back inside the house, what plans for Mother's body do the three older siblings discuss?

9. When the children are in the garden discussing what to now that Mother has died, what specifically do they discuss?

10. Why, in Chapter 2, does Jack begin to avoid Mother?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the importance of the author's choice of grammatical tense in The Cement Garden. Define the three types of tenses and explain how they are typically identified.

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast the two oldest siblings and the two youngest ones.

Essay Topic 3

There are four points of view in which literature is written: first person, third person objective, third person limited, and omniscient. Which point of view does the author use in this book? Is this the most effective point of view for this story? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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