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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 Aunt Lydia ask Aunt Elizabeth to do in Chapter 41?

2. In what year does the Thirteenth Symposium take place?

3. According to Becka in Chapter 60, who is the only person she has ever loved?

4. According to Aunt Lydia in Chapter 41, who is working against Aunt Elizabeth?

5. What does Aunt Lydia steal in Chapter 65?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do scholars think about the testimonies of Agnes, Nicole, and Aunt Lydia, as recounted in the Thirteenth Symposium?

2. How does Nicole adapt to life in Gilead at the beginning of Section XX? What does she find difficult?

3. What happens when the girls arrive in Portsmouth in Chapter 62?

4. How does Becka die, as described in Chapter 68? What does Aunt Lydia think about her death?

5. What information does Aunt Lydia learn about Becka in Chapter 41? How does she learn this information?

6. What do Agnes and Becka think about Jade at the beginning of Section XX?

7. What happens to Aunt Vidala in Chapter 65?

8. What happens aboard the Nellie J. Banks?

9. How does Aunt Vidala likely die, as described in Chapter 68?

10. What happens when Agnes and Becka are summoned to Aunt Lydia's office in Chapter 58?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Agnes experiences great change over the course of the novel. In what ways does she change and in what ways does she remain the same? By the novel’s end, is she better for these changes? What makes you say this? Explain your opinion using examples from the text.

Essay Topic 2

The power of information and knowledge is a major theme of the novel. Choose three situations in which the power of information is illustrated. Explain how each situation illustrates the power of information and knowledge.

Essay Topic 3

Compare and contrast Aunt Lydia and Aunt Vidala. How are they similar, and how are they different? How are they powerful, and how are they powerless?

(see the answer keys)

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