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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 Sam lose in Chapter Fifteen?

2. What is the name of the restaurant where Vanessa goes at the end of Chapter Twelve?

3. What is wrong with Charlotte in Chapter Ten?

4. What does Nellie teach, as explained in Chapter Three?

5. What is the name of Richard’s fiancée, as revealed in Chapter Nineteen?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Richard’s neighbor tell Nellie in Chapter Nine?

2. Who is Richard’s fiancée and how did they meet, as revealed in Chapter Nineteen?

3. What accident happens in Chapter Twenty-Three? What does Vanessa learn as a result?

4. According to Vanessa in Chapter Four, how was she a bad wife to Richard?

5. What request does Richard make of Nellie in Chapter Five? How does she respond, and what does he do in return?

6. What shocking information is revealed to the reader in Chapter Eighteen?

7. What odd occurrence happens to Vanessa while home alone in Chapter Twenty-One?

8. What worries Vanessa in Chapter Four? What does she vow to do?

9. What does Vanessa remember about her mother in Chapter Ten? How does she compare herself to her mother?

10. How do Nellie and Richard meet? What happens during their meeting, as revealed in Chapter Three?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the importance of Maggie to the novel. Despite the fact that she is not physically present in the novel, she has a powerful impact on Vanessa and her development over the course of the novel. Discuss the impact of Maggie on Vanessa as well as on the novel’s plot and themes.

Essay Topic 2

Vanessa 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 3

Vanessa finds herself involved in several conflicts over the course of the novel. Choose one instance of internal conflict and one instance of external conflict and explain how these conflicts have an impact on the novel and on the other characters.

(see the answer keys)

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