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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. In which season did Edith and John begin dating?

2. Who carried Roy's digits to town?

3. What does Sandy say is the reason Edith and Lyman never left the family farm?

4. What does Sandy say Edith never cried over?

5. What does the reporter take from his back pocket in Chapter 1?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who did John meet and marry after Edith refused his proposal?

2. What did John see in the field as he and Sandy drove past the Goodnough farm in Chapter 6?

3. What does Sandy say was unique about how Lyman ran the Goodnoughs' farm?

4. How is Roy Goodnough described in the first three chapters of the book?

5. What did Wenzel Gerdts tell John about Lyman?

6. How did Ada and Roy come to live in Colorado?

7. Why did John suspect that the barbed wire may be Roy's and not his own?

8. What accident occurred one day while the Goodnoughs and John were bringing in the harvest?

9. Why does Sandy think Roy chose the plot of land that he did?

10. Who approaches Sandy Roscoe at the beginning of the book, and why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the protagonist of the novel. What is a protagonist? Who is the protagonist of "The Tie That Binds"? What are her defining character traits?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Haruf's use of the flashback. Is it an effective way to learn about the past before the novel's start?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss conflict in the novel "The Tie That Binds." What are some examples of conflict in the novel? How are these conflicts resolved? Do they have any lasting effects on the characters involved?

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