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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. After her mother's death, why is Clara forced to leave the house?
(a) To attend her mother's funeral.
(b) Because Margarethe demands she do it.
(c) Because her father wants to flee with her in the middle of the night.
(d) To go shopping in the marketplace.

2. What kind of paintings does Schoonmaker secretly paint?
(a) Paintings of maimed and deformed people.
(b) Modern, abstract paintings.
(c) Paintings with bad words hidden in them.
(d) Paintings of nature.

3. What does Henrika die from?
(a) She stabs herself with a sharp blade.
(b) Complications from giving birth too early.
(c) She dies of natural causes.
(d) Starving herself out of protest.

4. What does Iris find most frustrating about her apprenticeship on the first day?
(a) That she is worse with a needle and thread than she originally thought.
(b) That she cannot immediately draw well.
(c) That she is far more advanced than the town baker.
(d) That she has no interest in a religious life after all.

5. How is Iris initially described in the novel?
(a) As beautiful and loving.
(b) As shy and unable/unwilling to speak.
(c) As mentally impaired and hard to control.
(d) As conscientious and unattractive.

Short Answer Questions

1. After Rebekka's death, what does Margarethe worry has happened to the household?

2. What argument does Margarethe use to convince van den Meer that he should marry her?

3. What worries Iris about the Master's "I am going to ruin you yet" comment while he is working on his painting of Clara?

4. How is Ruth initially described in the novel?

5. Right before the unveiling of the painting the Master created for van den Meer, what does Margarethe call Clara that sends Clara into a screaming rage?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do tulips symbolize in the beginning of the novel?

2. What is a changeling?

3. What is Iris's relationship with her mother like in the beginning of the novel?

4. What revelation does Iris have about her mother during her mother's marriage ceremony?

5. What does the reader learn about Ruth's character and personality by the end of Chapter 1?

6. What new traits does Iris develop after Henrika's death?

7. What goals is Marie de Medici trying to achieve through the ball?

8. Why does Clara pout about attending the event where her painting is unveiled?

9. What does the title of Chapter 3, "The Girl of Ashes," refer to?

10. How does Clara get the nickname of "Cinderella"?

(see the answer keys)

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