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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 specific Biblical story does the writer focus on?

2. What does the sick man want when he calls the main character?

3. In the story's opening sentence, what is implied about the main character's writing?

4. In what religion are the High Holy Days a sacred time?

5. What detail in the description of the man indicates how ill he feels?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did the woman originally begin her story with that she later decides to edit out?

2. What contradiction does Davis's first sentence introduce?

3. Why does the man in the main character's story think that he is dying, and what does he do about it?

4. What book has the woman been reading, and what story is she specifically interested in?

5. When the woman is riding the train, after the hurricane has passed, what two realizations does she come to?

6. In the end of "The Center of the Story," what does the woman realize about the emptiness at the center of her story?

7. What arguments for and against including the newscasters in her story does the woman entertain?

8. 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?

9. How is the story that the woman is writing similar to the earth and different from a hurricane?

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about Davis's use of syntax in "The Center of the Story." Support your ideas with quoted textual evidence.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that affirms, refutes, or qualifies the following statement: "The flat, static characters in 'The Center of the Story' are deliberately constructed to de-emphasize the role of individual personality in the story's plot." Support your claims with evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 3

Go online and read both some of the poetry of Emily Dickinson and what critics have to say about her writing. Then, write a brief comparison and contrast essay in which you analyze what is similar and what is different in Dickinson's and Davis's styles. Be sure to use textual evidence from both authors and to cite all sources in MLA format (including sources of criticism.)

(see the answer keys)

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