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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. How old is Cee when her father decides to leave his wife and child?

2. In which of the following states does Rose live?

3. In which of the following does Cee dream she converses with her brother?

4. At which of the following does C wait for Reena?

5. What color is the vase in Cee’s family’s summer rental?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Cee and her mother change their speech after her father leaves?

2. What is the typical subject of Cee’s mother’s painting?

3. What is implied to have been the topic of conversation in the last video Cee and her parents watch together?

4. Describe Cee’s first therapist’s office.

5. To what profession does C’s father turn after leaving her and her mother?

6. How does Cee’s mother explain the dandelion?

7. In the novel, how does life span integration work?

8. What reason does C posit for being sent by her mother to join her father and his new family?

9. What game do Cee and her brother play before they go swimming for the last time?

10. What circumstances bring C to tour a movie studio?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Which character is the second most important in the text? How does the work support such an assertion?

Essay Topic 2

To what other writer’s work in your experience does Serpell’s seem most similar? What makes the writers similar? What differentiates them? Overall, which do you regard as doing better at the craft of writing, and why?

Essay Topic 3

Section divisions, their titles, and chapter numbering / division schema are all components of paratext. That is, they are not part of the text but are associated with it closely and affect its meaning. What significance, if any, accrues to the chapter-numbering scheme at work in The Furrows? If there is significance, how does that significance manifest? If there is not, what in the novel supports the paratextual divisions that are in place?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 561 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample