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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. Why does Billy go back to Belfast?

2. How does Annabel behave towards the doctor's child?

3. How do Billy and Annabel first meet?

4. When Annabel's door bell rings while she is sitting and waiting for the press, who comes in?

5. Who are the unexpected people who come to Annabel's flat?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the difference between the way that Annabel and Frederick viewed acting?

2. Frederick thought his wife was superficial. He wanted to know if when she was acting she ever felt the part from deeply inside. How did Annabel respond to that?

3. Until quite recently, how would people have described Annabel's physical appearance?

4. Annabel made a second film and then she was to make a next film. Rumors were that Frederick was to play a leading role. What actually happened to Frederick?

5. Annabel was now the principal wage earner. Frederick's intellectual aspect and dignity were possible because of what Annabel earned. How did Frederick feel about this?

6. As more and more people came into her flat, for the party she hadn't known about, Annabel wondered what she should do. Why didn't she just send them all away?

7. Annabel was reading her new script, "The Staircase" when the bell rang. She answered the door and saw friends of Billy, or people who seemed to be his friends and who said they were there for a house warming party at seven 0'clock, according to Frederick. What did Annabel do?

8. After everyone left the party, the flat was in a terrible mess, and Billy asked Annabel if he wanted him to come around in the morning to help her and Frederick clean up the mess. Did that mean that Billy didn't know anything of Frederick's whereabouts?

9. The doctor gives Annabel two aspirins and a glass of warmed up wine. The leading neighbors of the palazzo, at the sight of the baby in Annabel's arms, get teary at the sight of Annabel's' tears. She is crying quite hard, when the child says something about how actresses can make themselves cry. What in the child's words brings back echoes of Frederick?

10. The doctor's wife is surprised that Annabel is taking her baby into the press conference. How does she interact with Annabel?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Annabel and Frederick decided to have a baby. How did the baby impact on their relationship? What was the role of the baby in both their lives? Give examples of how involved they were as parents.

Essay Topic 2

Frederick is obsessed with threatening to leave Annabel, but he doesn't leave. What is the significance of the threats? How do his threats impact on his and Annabel's lives? Could his threats be viewed as a sword over Annabel's head. Discuss.

Essay Topic 3

When Frederick commits suicide, Annabel denies his suicide and turns it into accidental death. His motives and hers, impact on her career. As regards Annabel's actions, is this a case of the end justifying the means?

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