View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Hoover think of when he looks at the picture by Bruegel?

2. What does Alma do at the Friary?

3. Which one of the following celebrities are at the game?

4. What is the name of the Jackie Gleason program Nick's mother likes to watch?

5. Which of the following characters collects baseball memorabilia?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do people in Phoenix think about Nick's roots?

2. Why does Hoover appreciate Truman's timing in the announcement of the Soviet bomb?

3. What does Nick think about meeting Klara after all these years?

4. Why did sister Edgar stop hitting kids?

5. What did Marian always want Nick to talk about?

6. How did Bobby Thompson's home run affect people?

7. Why does Mike think his mother should stay in New York?

8. Who does Nick say Brian believes he is?

9. Why does Nick say his mother likes Jackie Gleason so much?

10. Why does Nick think his mother should move to Phoenix?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is Manx's role in the novel? What meaning does his character give the novel? How would the novel change if Manx was not a character in the novel?

Essay Topic 2

Why has the author chosen Nick and Klara's affair as the central part of his story? Choose two other characters that the author could ahve chosen as the central part of his story. How would the novel change?

Essay Topic 3

Examine the author's writing style. How would you describe the author's prose style? What kind of vocabulary does he use? What meaning does the author's style give to the story?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 794 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample