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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. According to Reta, what can "help us turn down the volume of our own interior discourse"?
(a) Novels.
(b) Family.
(c) Nature.
(d) Work.

2. What does Tracy Halliday want a huge jar of marbles to represent for Norah?
(a) The number of Saturdays in Norah's life if she were to live to be eighty.
(b) The number of visitors Norah will have on her street corner.
(c) The number of prayers Norah's family has said for her.
(d) The number of memories Tracy has of her.

3. Why has Danielle deleted her early life and reinvented herself?
(a) Because her early life is too painful and she wants to forget everything.
(b) Because she suffered from an accident and has trouble remembering.
(c) Because she feels the past must be forgotten in order to move forward.
(d) Because she thinks it is important for feminists to assume new identities.

4. Why does Arthur tell Reta the day after Christmas that he has been up all night?
(a) Because her book needs a lot of work.
(b) Because he is concerned Reta will miss a deadline.
(c) Because he has not received her book.
(d) Because he has been thinking about Alicia.

5. What does Tom tell Reta on the phone that Norah has which has caused her to be hospitalized?
(a) Cancer.
(b) Pneumonia.
(c) Depression.
(d) Diabetes.

Short Answer Questions

1. In January, what has Reta left in limbo since her last conversation with Arthur Springer?

2. Arthur tells Reta the day after Christmas that he is filled with admiration for what?

3. In her letter to Ford-Halpern, how does Reta think other daughters can be protected from Norah's fate?

4. In what month does Reta write her letter to Ford-Halpern?

5. In the short story that Reta writes her letter about, what does the Czech professor see in the medical supply shop that disgusts him?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Reta call Dennis Ford-Halpern's omission of women in his book "The Goodness Gap" a "moral dilemma in itself"?

2. When Tom calls to inform Reta that Norah is in the hospital, how does the point of view change in the novel?

3. As Reta and Arthur have their heated discussion, what three things happen that interrupt them that provide comic relief to the serious conversation?

4. What does Reta notice on Norah's wrists that cause Tom to forget his trilobites and research stress and trauma?

5. At the hospital, what does Natalie reveal about the injuries to Norah's hands?

6. What does Reta and Tom's walk in Orangetown cemetery represent?

7. What rationale does Reta offer about the importance of novels despite moral injustice in the world?

8. How does Emma, Reta's journalist friend, try to comfort her and how is it significant?

9. What issue does Reta take with Emily Helt's book review in the Chicago Tribune?

10. According to Reta, why is goodness not a guaranteed virtue?

(see the answer keys)

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