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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 kind of music does Cecilia like to listen to?

2. What is Cecilia doing as she goes up and down the stairs before the party?

3. Which Lisbon girl has a chipped tooth?

4. What does Cecilia do for the majority of the afternoon on the day she died?

5. What reassuring noise do Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon hear as the girls get ready for the party?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Cecilia look like in her coffin?

2. What does the cemetery where Cecilia's service is held look like?

3. How did Cecilia Lisbon die?

4. Name three events the boys read about in Cecilia's diary.

5. Describe a few of the changes the boys noticed at the Lisbon house after Cecilia came home from the hospital.

6. What major revelation do the boys have upon entering the Lisbon girls' party?

7. What are Cecilia's two moods toward the end of the diary?

8. When Peter Sissen reports back to the boys about his time inside the Lisbon house, what does Paul Baldino vow to do?

9. How does the Lisbon girls' party differ from other parties the boys have attended?

10. What do the adult boys discover about Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon after speaking to Mr. Lisbon?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe several ways in which the parents of the neighborhood attempt to protect or shield their children from the Lisbons' suicides. Do their efforts succeed? If so, how? If not, why not?

Essay Topic 2

At the dance, Therese says to her date, "We just want to live. If anyone would let us." What does she mean? Are the Lisbon girls not living? Is she referring to Cecilia, or to her own future suicide? Is there someone or something refusing to let them live?

Essay Topic 3

Compare the story of the Lisbon girls to the story of the dying elm trees. How does one represent the other? How are they connected?

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