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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 Brian want to talk about instead of baseball?

2. Which of the following characters collects baseball memorabilia?

3. What is the name of Richard's friend?

4. What is the name of the Bruegel painting Hoover sees in the magazine?

5. Want does Manx want to do with the baseball?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Jackie Gleason entertain members of the crowd?

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

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

4. How did Nick's son change after the LA riots?

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

6. What do we find out about Nick's past in this section?

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

8. How do Matt and Nick's views on their father differ?

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

10. How does Marian react to Nick's fling with Donna?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How is the story about Cotter Martin linked to the rest of the story and the characters? Why doesn´t the author continue Cotter's story? How do you think he would have reacted to his father selling the baseball?

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

In what way is Nick typical of New York? How has being from New York shaped his character?

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