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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. Where does Dennis live?

2. What does the narrator's grandmother complain of in "In This Country"?

3. Why does the narrator question her husband's story about his lover, Dotty Wasserman?

4. Where are the friends Anthony visits in "Long-Distance Runner"?

5. What does Nick suggest Faith knows nothing about in "The Expensive Moment"?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How did Cissy become pregnant with Emmanuel? Why does her father care for him?

3. What happens to Juniper in "Little Girl"?

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

5. Why is Lavinia's mother upset at the end of "Lavinia: An Old Story"?

6. Who tells the American tourists they "do not love the Chinese people" (288) in "Somewhere Else"?

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

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

9. Describe the story the narrator writes for her father when he asks for a simple story in "A Conversation with My Father."

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay describing the imagery used in The Collected Stories of Grace Paley. Indicate examples of imagery in the text and identify possible meanings.

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Choose one story from the collection and write an essay exploring the central purpose of that story. What response do you think Paley hoped to get from her readers? Do you think she was successful? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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