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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 is the name of the cook at school?

2. What are the boys doing when the monologues in Section 2 return to their perspective?

3. Who is not permitted to go on the walk?

4. Who witnessed the kiss in the garden through a chink in the hedge in Section 1?

5. What significant fact does the reader learn about Bernard's life early in Section 4?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is significant about the opening description to Section 4?

2. Describe how Section 2 is structured.

3. What is significant about the way Section 2 is introduced?

4. Overall, what should the reader take away as most significant from Section 1?

5. What is the significance of having each character introduce themselves by identifying a specific image in Section 1?

6. Why is Bernard's announcement of his engagement in Section 4 significant?

7. Characterize Bernard's attitude towards Louis as described in Section 3.

8. Which of the characters appears most at ease in Section 3, and why?

9. What is the major event that occurs in Section 4, and why is it significant?

10. Describe the attitude of the characters towards each other prior to Percival's arrival in Section 4.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In a detailed essay, outline the role Rhoda plays in the group. Is she a kind of tragic hero? What is the source or her paralysis and misanthropy? Fully describe this character using ample textual evidence.

Essay Topic 2

When Jinny kisses Louis, only Susan is privy to the event, and this event should have only affected these three characters. But the loss of innocence pervades the whole novel. Write an essay which examines the theme of the loss of innocence, beginning with an analysis of "The Kiss" and its effect on the group.

Essay Topic 3

Compare and contrast the characters of Louis and Bernard, who seem to constantly sway between admiration and jealousy toward each other. Why do they pursue such separate life paths? What leads them to their major decisions? How do they find themselves at the novel's conclusion? What makes them arguably the two most similar characters in the text?

(see the answer keys)

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