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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. Why does Miss Strangeworth feel so certain that the children in front of the post office will be respectful toward her?
(a) She has been a good friend to their families and knows most of them by name.
(b) She knows that the children of the town have all be raised to respect older people.
(c) She thinks that they would not dare to make fun of someone as important as her.
(d) She thinks that there is nothing about her that a person could possibly make fun of.

2. When Miss Strangeworth looks out the window after the story ends, what will she see?
(a) That her roses have been destroyed.
(b) That the front of her house has been vandalized.
(c) That the police are waiting to arrest her.
(d) That her neighbors are waiting to get answers from her.

3. What business did Miss Strangeworth's grandfather run?
(a) A shipping company.
(b) A tailor shop.
(c) A dairy farm.
(d) A lumber mill.

4. What job does Miss Chandler hold?
(a) Schoolteacher.
(b) Grocery clerk.
(c) Nanny.
(d) Librarian.

5. Linda suggests that since no one in town seems to care about her and Dave, they should not bother to help anyone else. When Dave decides to help anyway, what does it demonstrate?
(a) That a good person chooses to be kind and helpful even in difficult times.
(b) That Linda is really the problem in their relationship, not Dave.
(c) That Miss Strangeworth would not be so isolated if she were a kinder person.
(d) That even the town's teenagers are more mature than Miss Strangeworth.

Short Answer Questions

1. Helen Crane looks at her baby with "rapt wonder" (421). How is she looking at the baby?

2. Why does Miss Strangeworth think that she has a right to eavesdrop on Linda Stewart at the post office?

3. What word is repeatedly used to describe the day on which the story opens?

4. What is implied about Miss Strangeworth's choice of the multicolored paper for her notes?

5. What is the longest time that Miss Strangeworth has been away from her town?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Linda Stewart, and why has she been so upset?

2. Describe Miss Strangeworth's feelings about her roses.

3. Describe the significance of the paper that Miss Strangeworth chooses for her anonymous notes.

4. To whom do the townspeople want to dedicate a statue, and why does Miss Strangeworth say that it should be a statue of her grandfather, instead?

5. What does Miss Strangeworth write to Mrs. Harper, and what is she implying?

6. What worry does Helen Crane express about her baby daughter, and how does Miss Strangeworth respond to her concerns?

7. What details does Jackson provide about the interior of Miss Strangeworth's house to show the pride the family has always taken in the house?

8. What is ironic about Miss Strangeworth's criticisms of Helen and Don Crane's parenting?

9. Explain how Miss Strangeworth's need to do things perfectly is shown in how she writes her letters.

10. What details in the story let the reader know that Miss Strangeworth herself does not believe some of the accusations she is making?

(see the answer keys)

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