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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 the purpose of the description of Lorelei coming out into the yard during Easter of 2004?

2. What gift did Bill give Meg when he was trying to get her to let him come home after she kicked him out?

3. What is Vicky's final gift to Meg?

4. What does Meg mean when she complains that her family's behavior is "lurid"? (206)

5. In her email to Jim in Chapter 12, what comparison between her own situation and Colin's does Lorelei make?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Colin first meets Owen, how does Rory perceive the encounter, and what does this demonstrate about Rory?

2. What caused Meg to kick Bill out in 2003, and what was the result?

3. In Chapter 9, what Easter gift does Beth's boyfriend give her, and why does she feel the way she does about this gift?

4. How does Lorelei characterize Rory in her email to Jim?

5. What is Vicky's perspective on the way Lorelei helps her during her illness?

6. When Rory arrives at Bird House in Chapter 14, how do his feelings about Lorelei and the house contrast with his memories of his childhood feelings?

7. What evidence does Kayleigh cite when she calls Beth and Meg "heartless bitches" (305)?

8. How does Meg's answer to Colin's question about how she is feeling about Lorelei's death demonstrate her complex feelings about her mother?

9. What evidence is there at Vicky's funeral and wake that Meg's attitude about Colin and Kayleigh is changing?

10. How does Meg's reaction to the news that Colin and Kayleigh are camping while they are in England affirm Kayleigh's characterization of Meg's and Beth's reaction to her?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is Meg's role in the Bird family? Why is she the one who gets off to the most successful start in life, and why is she generally able to hold her life together despite the obstacles in her way? Does Meg know herself and what she needs better than the other Birds? How does this impact her ability to understand and relate to other people? Does Meg know herself well enough to follow through on her beliefs, or do her actions sometimes contradict her beliefs? Would you say that she is better or worse than other characters, in this regard? Write an essay that explores how the failings that seem to plague the Bird family either do or do not plague Meg, and that analyzes why Meg seems bound for a more successful life from the start. Support your ideas with evidence drawn from throughout the text.

Essay Topic 2

After Beth witnesses the scene between her mother and her father and Vicky in Chapter 7, she goes upstairs to her own room. What is it that so disturbs her about the appearance of her room? What does it imply about her? How does juxtaposing her dawning realizations about her own room and herself with the scene between her parents and Vicky create a sense of urgency and help the reader understand Beth's decision to try again with Jason? Write an essay in which you analyze how the details in and structure of this section of Chapter 7 allows the reader to more fully understand Beth's panic and her choice to attempt a relationship with Jason.

Essay Topic 3

Choose one idea associated with Easter Sunday--religious or secular--and show how this idea is developed through the text's focus on the Bird family's celebrations of Easter. (Note that you are tracing an idea, like "rebirth," "salvation," or "springtime," not a tradition, object, etc., like "Easter egg hunts.") Trace the development of this idea throughout the text and show how this symbolic association illuminates important aspects of the Bird family's story. Support your claims with evidence drawn from throughout the text.

(see the answer keys)

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