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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 does David tell Marlee about college that he does not tell anyone else in the family?

2. What does Sally say she did with her hairbrush that she loaned to Liz?

3. What is the name Marlee uses when she telephones Liz?

4. What does Betty Jean say is the worst that can happen when a Negro pretends to be white?

5. What deal does Liz make with Marlee about the presentation?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Liz act when the colored students walk into the library where she and Marlee are preparing for their history project?

2. Why does Marlee assign a drink to each person in her life that represents that person's personality?

3. Why does Marlee choose to remain friends with Sally, even though Sally sometimes makes fun of her and mistreats her?

4. What does Ms. Taylor tell Marlee about the reason that Liz is not at school on the day they are supposed to present their history project?

5. What does Marlee do to cope with her anxiety when she is expected to speak to new people?

6. What does Betty Jean tell Marlee about some of the reasons Negroes try to pass as white?

7. What does Marlee discover her new math teacher, Mr. Harding, does differently than her previous math teacher on her first day of school?

8. How does Marlee decide to try to get a message to Liz after Liz can not come back to school?

9. How do Marlee's parents react when they find out that Liz had been passing?

10. What does Marlee's father tell her about his reasons for driving her to school every day?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When Marlee and Liz are attempting to preserve their friendship despite the fact that Marlee is white and Liz is a Negro, their parents and everyone they know in the community forbids it. Write an essay exploring the reasons, as described by Levine in the novel, why people were so against a friendship like theirs in Little Rock in the late 1950s.

Essay Topic 2

When pro-segregation protesters rallied against integration in Little Rock in 1958, Marlee's father remembers that they caused terrible disruption and fear, largely because the local police did not deter or arrest them. But in 1959, Marlee and her father witness the police responding much more effectively to the segregationists, making many arrests and clearing the streets (286). Write an essay exploring why Levine chose to close the book with this scene and the tone she was likely trying to convey in doing so.

Essay Topic 3

Although she is a minor character, JT's mother, Mrs. Dalton, has the most to lose from her involvement in the WEC (Women's Emergency Committee to Re-open Our Schools). Write an essay analyzing why Mrs. Dalton chooses to get involved on the more pro-integration side of the debate and the impact her choice to let Marlee open Red's trunk in chapter 54 has on the novel's resolution.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 976 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample