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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. What does Derek drive?

2. In Chapter 9, how is Tom acting?

3. In Chapter 10, Julie and Jack are talking in Tom's room. Jack wants to run. What does Julie notice?

4. What does Derek do before leaving the house in Chapter 10?

5. Who hit Tom in Chapter 8 and made him cry?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain the incident involving a frog in the garden.

2. How is Tom's baby-like behavior affected by Julie's willingness to treat him like one?

3. What conversation does Jack have with Tom after being awakened by Tom's fake crying?

4. Explain how Julie's punch of Jack turns into sex with him.

5. Jack thinks his hands smell like rotten meat. What does he do? What is really causing the smell?

6. Three weeks after Mother's death, Jack goes into the cellar to see the trunk. What are his thoughts as he visits the cellar?

7. Three weeks after Mother's death, how does Sue spend her time?

8. What is Derek's solution to covering the rotting smell? What do the kids tell him the smell is?

9. When he asks to do so, why won't Sue let Jack read excerpts from her diary?

10. What is the conversation between Derek and Jack as they leave the pool hall?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What are static and dynamic characters? Name the static and dynamic characters in this novel and discuss what about each makes them either static or dynamic.

Essay Topic 2

What is the difference between conflict and crisis in a novel? How are they similar? Also relate the differences and similarities specifically to The Cement Garden.

Essay Topic 3

Define foil. Who is the foil of this novel and why?

(see the answer keys)

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