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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. How many nights had Quintana spent in the hospital between December 2003 and January 2004?

2. How many widowers were studied in the United Kingdom, according to a report in "The Lancet"?

3. What was Quintana's temperature the first time she went to the emergency room?

4. Who did Joan work for when she was in her twenties?

5. How long were the paramedics in Joan's apartment?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe John's funeral.

2. What happened when Gerry and Quintana arrived in California?

3. How did friends and relatives help Joan in the first three weeks after John died?

4. What promise did Joan make to Quintana that she realized that she would not be able to keep and why?

5. What expensive drug was Quintana given when she developed sepsis?

6. What was Joan's first column like that she wrote for "Life"?

7. What did Joan first think when she looked up and saw John slumped over, motionless at dinner?

8. How did Joan, Gerry and Tony plan to tell Quintana that her father died?

9. What one object did Sara Mankiewicz remove from her house when John and Joan rented it and why?

10. Why on most surface levels did Joan seem rational?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the overall mood of the book and give examples of the change in mood from the beginning of the novel to the end.

Essay Topic 2

During the summer, Joan began to feel fragile and unstable. Discuss why Joan felt fragile and unstable and how she coped with these feelings, giving quotes from the book to support your discussion.

Essay Topic 3

Joan was troubled that everything had been so ordinary the night John died. Discuss what the ordinary had to do with sudden death or disaster. Give examples from the book to support your statements.

(see the answer keys)

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