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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 is Aldred's ex-wife's name?

2. Who's route across China does Aldred hope to mimic?

3. Why does Lionello's law business suffer?

4. How does Aldred describe Peter to Helen in the letter?

5. Who judges Peter Exley to be a poor thing, but still marries him?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Aldred equally happy and sad to be around Helen?

2. Why does it take all day for Aldred to reflect and appreciate his good fortune for not being on the plane that crashed?

3. As Benedict's health worsens, what is his greatest desire?

4. Why doesn't Aldred mind being alone?

5. Why is Exley living with Roy Rysom?

6. Why is Professor Gardiner in prison during the war?

7. Why does Aldred value the letters Peter has waiting for him iin Hong Kong so much?

8. How does Aldred come to know Raimonda and Gigliola?

9. Why might Aldred be jealous of Tad?

10. What impression of the Driscoll family does Aldred get upon meeting them?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why is it difficult for Aldred to transition between war and the death that comes from violence to peacetime and life without wartime death?

Essay Topic 2

What role does Bertram play in the lives of Helen, Benedict and Aldred? What does he provide to each character?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Helen's transformation from a girl to a woman throughout the book. Describe her on the day Aldred first sees her. Describe her on the day he wakes her from sleeping on the front porch. What changes? Why does she change? Use examples.

(see the answer keys)

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