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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. On her train ride, what does the woman realize she has not given much thought to?
3. What technique is used in the phrase "the stink of burning hair, fur, and horn" (19)?
4. What does the hurricane do to the city in the woman's story?
5. Where is the woman's landlady from?
Short Essay Questions
1. When the woman is riding the train, after the hurricane has passed, what two realizations does she come to?
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 did the woman originally begin her story with that she later decides to edit out?
4. What is the woman's story about, and what is its major flaw?
5. What book has the woman been reading, and what story is she specifically interested in?
6. Why does the man in the main character's story think that he is dying, and what does he do about it?
7. What paradox related to religion does the woman encounter in writing her story?
8. What arguments for and against including the newscasters in her story does the woman entertain?
9. 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?
10. How is the story that the woman is writing similar to the earth and different from a hurricane?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Read Julie Beck's Atlantic article "Life's Stories" (available online). Write an essay that explain the relationship between Davis's short story and the ideas presented in Beck's article. Use textual evidence from both sources to support your claims, and cite both sources in MLA format.
Essay Topic 2
Write an essay that analyzes the narrative voice of "The Center of the Story." Use quoted textual evidence to support your claims.
Essay Topic 3
Write an essay that analyzes how and why Davis uses an absolute minimum of details to create the story's setting. Support your claims with evidence from the text.
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This section contains 834 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
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