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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 term does Sugar note not having previously understood?

2. As which of the following is Sugar trained?

3. Of which church is Sugar a member?

4. As which of the following does Sugar note she would represent herself?

5. To what does Sugar compare her parents?

Short Essay Questions

1. After her salutation, what is the first thing Sugar replies to Awful Jealous Person (258)?

2. What is the first piece of advice Sugar asserts she would give to her twenty-something self?

3. What questions does Sugar ask her memoir-writing students as they review student work?

4. How does Sugar explain what it means to transcend?

5. What general advice for what NOT to do does Sugar give?

6. What does Drinker note as his drinking pattern?

7. For what reason does Helpless Mom report functioning as a single mother despite being married?

8. What is the worst *physical* abuse C reports her brother perpetrating on her?

9. How does Sugar describe jeans in the wake of a breakup?

10. Why does Sugar refer to the couches she and her husband had early in their marriage as dueling couches?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Both the letter-writers whose concerns are addressed in the book and the respondent most commonly operate under pseudonyms (that is, false names). What functions does the pseudonymization serve? What in the book indicates as much, and how does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

Sugar repeatedly urges her letter-writers towards revealing their emotional selves to those in their lives. Overall, is it good advice? What suggests that it is or is not? How is the suggestion made?

Essay Topic 3

More broadly, what effect upon the reader does the largely epistolary format of the book have? How is that effect produced?

(see the answer keys)

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