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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What do Caspar and Iris both believe lives in the highest part of the van den Meers' house?
(a) A sick relative.
(b) An imp.
(c) Strange animals.
(d) A hooded man.

2. What illness is spreading around Haarlem?
(a) Some kind of contagious mental illness that makes people go insane.
(b) Some kind of unknown cancer.
(c) The plague.
(d) The flu.

3. How are Ruth and Iris related?
(a) Ruth is Iris's mom.
(b) Ruth is Iris's older sister.
(c) They are cousins.
(d) Iris is Ruth's older sister.

4. Who is Rebekka?
(a) A girl who has a condition similar to Ruth's.
(b) A cook hired to help in the van den Meer household.
(c) Margarethe's long-lost sister.
(d) A young girl Iris befriended in the neighborhood.

5. Who is going to throw a ball?
(a) The mayor's wife.
(b) Margarethe.
(c) Marie de Medici.
(d) The mayor of Haarlem.

6. How is Margarethe initially described in the novel?
(a) As stubborn and rude.
(b) As strict and careworn.
(c) As optimistic and kind.
(d) As silent and strong.

7. What role does Ruth take in Schoonmaker's household?
(a) She gathers flowers for him every day.
(b) She paints copies of his paintings.
(c) She sits so he can paint her.
(d) She fetches new paints for him.

8. What does Schoonmaker prefer the Fishers call him?
(a) Master.
(b) Padrino.
(c) Father.
(d) Sir.

9. What happens to Rebekka?
(a) She ends up having an affair with Mr. van den Meer.
(b) She is fired for teaching Iris how to read and write.
(c) She drops dead from the plague while in the van den Meer kitchen.
(d) She steals money from the van den Meers.

10. Who is the American equivalent of Sinter Klaas, the person for whom the girls leave their shoes out one night?
(a) Sister Klass, the patron saint of candy.
(b) There is no equivalent for this figure.
(c) Santa Claus.
(d) The tooth fairy.

11. Who does Iris eventually go to apprentice with, after much protest?
(a) The town baker.
(b) The nuns in the church next door.
(c) The town seamstress.
(d) Caspar and the Master.

12. What city do the Fishers flee to?
(a) Haarlem.
(b) Paris.
(c) London.
(d) The reader never learns the name of the city.

13. What argument does Margarethe use to convince van den Meer that he should marry her?
(a) That she has a family inheritance of her own.
(b) That it would be best for Clara and her reputation.
(c) That she will otherwise not stay to just cook and clean for free.
(d) That she loves him very much.

14. After Rebekka's death, what does Margarethe worry has happened to the household?
(a) That Mr. van den Meer will divorce her and leave everyone homeless.
(b) That the plague has been introduced.
(c) That all of their money has been stolen.
(d) That, because Iris can now read and write, she will outsmart her own mother.

15. What does the Master call Mr. van den Meer that crosses a line of acceptability?
(a) An adulterer.
(b) A hen-pecked husband.
(c) A fraud.
(d) A money-hungry lump.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Iris propose getting Clara out of the house?

2. What does the town say is the cause of Henrika's health issues?

3. When she first arrives, what services does Margarethe offer the townspeople in exchange for food and housing?

4. When the Fishers first arrive in the marketplace, how are they treated?

5. What has allegedly happened to Jack Fisher?

(see the answer keys)

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