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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. Why does the man in the story feel so ill?
2. What does the woman suspect that the man believes about his blasphemy?
3. What technique is used in the sentence: "Outside her apartment, the weather was changing: the wind rose, the branches swayed on the young trees, and the leaves fluttered" (19)?
4. What detail of the woman's train ride reinforces the motif of things that come close to happening but do not actually happen?
5. What does the hurricane do to the city in the woman's story?
Short Essay Questions
1. Besides the timing of his phone call, what connects the man who thinks he is dying to the rest of the story the woman is writing?
2. What comment does the story make about paring a story down to the essentials, and what does this have to do with Davis's own style?
3. What is the woman's story about, and what is its major flaw?
4. How is the story that the woman is writing similar to the earth and different from a hurricane?
5. What paradox related to religion does the woman encounter in writing her story?
6. What contradiction does Davis's first sentence introduce?
7. What does the woman realize about her religious belief and the calm she feels?
8. Why does the man in the main character's story think that he is dying, and what does he do about it?
9. In the end of "The Center of the Story," what does the woman realize about the emptiness at the center of her story?
10. What happens when the woman visits a Baptist church?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Write an essay that analyzes the role that the newscasters and the news play in "The Center of the Story." Use textual evidence to support your claims.
Essay Topic 2
Write an essay that analyzes the significance of the fly that the writer ends up spending her time watching at the Baptist church. Support your essay with evidence from the text, and be sure to cite any outside sources in MLA format.
Essay Topic 3
Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the protagonist's search for meaning in "The Center of Things." Support your ideas with evidence from the text.
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This section contains 983 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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