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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 do the travelers eat on the bench near a London landmark?

2. In Sophie's story, how does the little kid feel when people say the kid's parents have gone to heaven, a wonderful place?

3. What do the travelers try to use for navigation after the wreckage of the storm?

4. How does Sophie sleep her first night on land?

5. How does Cody contact the ship?

Short Essay Questions

1. When the family comes to visit Bompie, how does he react?

2. What do Sophie and Cody do to the sails of the boat, when they finally get them up again?

3. When the travelers arrive in Ireland, who are they able to reach by phone?

4. What does Uncle Stew say about the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current?

5. How does Sophie feel about the ham radio?

6. What are Sophie and Uncle Dock's attitudes toward the autohelm?

7. What settles the argument about where Bompie should live?

8. When everyone is up on deck in the midst of the storm, and Sophie sees them from the helm, what does she see?

9. In Sophie's story about Bompie and his father, why does Bompie visit his father?

10. How does Sophie feel about seeing Bompie, as the travelers near their destination?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss men and women's roles in the novel.

1) Why does Sophie get angry when she is cast in a traditional women's role? Why does she want to do tasks that are traditionally male?

2) How does Cody react to implications that his tasks of cooking and cleaning are traditionally women's tasks? Why does he respond this way?

3) What is the author saying about traditional roles of men and women in society?

Essay Topic 2

The characters in the novel all deal with tragedy and loss. Discuss dealing with tragedy in the novel.

1) How does Dock deal with the loss of Rosalie? How is this loss a tragedy for Dock?

2) How does Sophie deal with the loss of her parents?

3) What other tragedies do characters deal with? Is Stew's loss of his job a tragedy? Does Cody deal with tragedy?

Essay Topic 3

The characters argue with each other throughout the novel. Discuss the significance of arguments in the novel.

1) Why do some characters argue more than others? What causes Mo and Stew to argue? What causes Brian and Cody to argue?

2) What causes conflict and argument between Mo and Cody? What does this say about their relationship as father and son?

3) How are arguments different before the major storm, during the storm, and after the storm?

(see the answer keys)

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