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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. Where does Ursula try to break the jam jar containing the wormhole?

2. What is tangy in the dessert that the narrator eats in Chapter 13?

3. What do the Hempstocks serve the narrator for dinner in Chapter 9?

4. What color boots does Ginnie Hempstock wear at the end of Chapter 13?

5. What does the narrator call the things that devour Ursula?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Ursula say when she is sent to talk to the narrator in Chapter 12?

2. How does the narrator get out of his locked bedroom in Chapter 8?

3. What does the narrator do after arriving at the Hempstock home in Chapter 9?

4. What suggestions are made for dealing with the narrator's parents before they arrive at the Hempstocks' home in Chapter 9?

5. How does the narrator describe his encounter with the opal miner in Chapter 12?

6. What comes out at dusk when the narrator is in the fairy ring?

7. What do the cleaners look like?

8. Why does Lettie say the narrator cannot stay in the ocean forever in Chapter 13?

9. At the beginning of Chapter 12, what does the narrator see as he settles into the fairy ring?

10. What is the purpose of the hole that Ursula left inside the narrator?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the narrator's escape from his locked bedroom in Chapter 8. What emotions go through the narrator’s mind when he realizes that Ursula has locked him in? How does the narrator escape? Does he leave because of fear or courage?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the narrator's first impressions of Ursula when he meets her. Who does the narrator think that Ursula is? Why? What does he see when he looks at her? What does she do that makes it seem as though she has inhuman powers?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the narrator's relationship with his father. What type of boy was the narrator's father growing up? How does the narrator’s father punish his son? Why is there tension between the two?

(see the answer keys)

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