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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 Maggie remember first hearing about Mr. Knodel from other students?

2. Which of Maggie's sisters did her whole family visit one Christmas in Colorado?

3. What happens to Lina at the party her male friend invites her to in the first section of the book focused on her?

4. What is one of Sloane Ford's most striking physical features?

5. What is one of Maggie's problems with her parents?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Mr. Knodel tell Maggie about what happened to her in Hawaii?

2. What happens to Lina in high school that changes the rest of her life and makes the rest of high school very difficult?

3. What does Lina sometimes find herself asking Ed to try to make up for her husband's emotional and physical detachment?

4. In Part I, what initially enchants Lina about her physical relationship with Aidan as a teenager?

5. How does Maggie react when she is demoted from varsity to JV soccer in high school?

6. In the Prologue, what is Taddeo horrified to hear her own mother endured every day for a time as a young woman in Italy?

7. How does Sloane react when she and Richard and Karin have their first threesome?

8. When does Maggie start to think that Mr. Knodel's texts are becoming a bit strange for a student-teacher relationship?

9. What does Lina tell her support group that she thinks created her emotional loneliness?

10. Why do Sloane and Richard decide to start their own restaurant in Newport?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What do you think are Lina's main motivations in initiating and sustaining her affair with Aidan? How does Lina feel about her family dynamic and support system (or lack thereof) growing up throughout her childhood and adolescence? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text.

Essay Topic 2

In the Prologue, Taddeo writes that she tells Maggie's story, in particular, through Maggie's eyes. Taddeo keeps her focus and point-of-view narrowly on Lina and Sloane, as well, telling their stories almost entirely from their own perspectives. Write an essay analyzing Taddeo's decision to tell each woman's stories almost entirely from their own points of view. How do you think this decision both strengthens and weakens this book?

Essay Topic 3

The three women Taddeo chooses to focus this book upon are all white, heterosexual, and cisgender. Do you think Taddeo's work would have been strengthened if she had included more diverse female perspectives and experiences? Write an essay explaining why or why not.

(see the answer keys)

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