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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 do the men Faith listens to at the deli discuss in "Listening"?

2. What are Ruthy, Edie, and their friends celebrating at the end of "Ruthy and Edie"?

3. Why did Selena sleep for the first time in two years when she found out Abby died?

4. What kind of story does the woman's father ask her to write in "Conversations with my Father"?

5. What lie did Selena's family let her believe until she was 42 years old?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Faith do at the end of the story after she and her father argue? Describe the mood.

2. In "Anxiety," why does the father get upset with his daughter says "oink, oink"?

3. What instances of Mr. Zargrowsky's racism does Faith cite in "Zagrowsky Tells"?

4. What do the men on the subway think of when they see Samuel and his friends jumping on the platform?

5. Who is Sonia in "In This Country: But in Another Language..."? Why is the grandmother worried about ther?

6. Why is the birth in "At That Time, or The History of a Joke" said to be a miracle?

7. Compare and contrast the mothers at the playground in "Northeast Playground" to the mothers when the older woman was a young mother.

8. What does Jack say could happen if they have a baby as the narrator suggests in "The Story Hearer"?

9. Why do the women in "Politics" want a fence built around the playground?

10. Why does Jack think his father was sleeping in a crib when he was young? Why does the narrator think he was doing this?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose two characters and discuss their similarities and differences.

Essay Topic 2

Choose two stories and write an essay analyzing narrative voice in Paley of The Collected Stories of Grace Paley. Include thoughts on how the narrative voice of the story is effective in conveying the story’s themes.

Essay Topic 3

Away from the main characters in each story, examine the way the author uses other characters. When does she introduce and take them away from the story? What effect does it have on the story?

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