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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Beth trying to talk to Meg about when Molly interrupts their phone call to complain about Alfie and her father?
(a) Beth is trying to describe how uncomfortable Vicky's relationship with Lorelei makes her.
(b) Beth is trying to convince Meg that she is not lonely and does not need to start dating.
(c) Beth is trying to defend Lorelei's way of grieving over Rhys.
(d) Beth is trying to explain how miserable she is and why she feels like a failure.

2. What does Lorelei explain to Jim in her New Years email?
(a) Her estrangement from her children.
(b) Her children's inability to get along with one another.
(c) Her feelings about Rhys's death.
(d) Her relationship with Vicky.

3. When Lorelei and Vicky tell Beth about their romantic relationship, how does Beth respond?
(a) She disappears for several days.
(b) She threatens to go live with Colin.
(c) She pretends they did not tell her.
(d) She throws up in the sink.

4. When Meg and Molly enter Bird House after Lorelei's death, where do they realize she has been sleeping?
(a) In a chair.
(b) On the floor.
(c) On a hammock.
(d) In the bathtub.

5. Where does Beth discover Rhys when she gets back to Bird House and is getting ready to take a shower?
(a) In Meg's room.
(b) In her parents' bed.
(c) Hiding in the shower.
(d) Sitting at the table in the dark.

Short Answer Questions

1. When Meg thinks of Lorelei's house as a "warren," on page 150, what is she implicitly comparing her mother to?

2. What surprise does Vicky arrange for Lorelei during Easter of 1999?

3. Which family member is the one to first discover Rhys's body?

4. What issue do Rory and Kayleigh seem to be fighting about when they visit for Easter?

5. What does Lorelei say is the cause of her isolation from the rest of her family?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Colin's reaction to the art wall show that even early in the children's lives he is struggling with Lorelei's collecting?

2. What foreshadowing alerts the reader that something terrible has happened between Meg and Beth?

3. How does the robbery at Bird House end Colin's dream of going to Greece?

4. When Kayleigh is talking to Beth about quitting smoking, what does Beth assume she is really saying, and why?

5. What is ironic about Lorelei's characterization of Meg's "frantic reproduction" (1)?

6. What is the one thing about Lorelei that Vicky cannot understand, and how does she try to reconcile herself to it?

7. When Meg and Molly go in to start clearing out Lorelei's house, why is it such a relief to them when they reach the landing of the stairs?

8. How does Colin end up as Lorelei's next-door neighbor?

9. During their vacation to Greece, what details demonstrate that Bill is not as involved with the family as Meg is?

10. What sign of growth does Lorelei show in her New Years email to Jim?

(see the answer keys)

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