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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. Who ran off to a ship at Savannah and disappeared?
(a) William's nephew.
(b) The landlady's husband.
(c) Lorena's brother.
(d) An earlier William Howland.

2. In what direction has the sun set at the beginning of "The Keepers of the House"?
(a) The clouds keep Abigail from seeing the sun set.
(b) Due west.
(c) Southwest.
(d) Northwest.

3. What is Abigail's son's name?
(a) Eddie.
(b) Willie.
(c) Bobby.
(d) Johnny.

4. What is like "stain on a sponge"?
(a) Water spilled onto the porch.
(b) Dryness of the skin.
(c) The creeping night.
(d) The light on the porch.

5. Who is surrounded by "tiers of flesh"?
(a) Annie Howland Campbell.
(b) William Howland.
(c) Gregory Mason.
(d) Howland Campbell.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is quiet and still and dry in the first chapter?

2. From what state did William Marshall Howland originally come?

3. What river is referred to at the beginning of the book?

4. Who says, "Not being pretty...it worries a girl"?

5. Who is passed out in the corner after the groom's breakfast?

Short Essay Questions

1. In addition to the month being stated, what other clues about the season is the reader given in the first paragraph?

2. What is the appearance of the front yard in the first section/chapter?

3. Describe the still that William eventually finds.

4. Describe the land that William Marshall Howland claims.

5. Describe the Howland tomb and its eventual use.

6. What memories does Abigail think of after she thinks the owl flies over the river?

7. What caused the "ugly smears" in the sky in October in the first section?

8. What does the narrator mean when she says that the county will find out about her oldest daughters being sent away because "they always know everything"?

9. Immediately after Lorena's death, what plants does William notice?

10. What is the reaction when William subscribes to the New York Tribune at his daughter's request?

(see the answer keys)

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