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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 Sam start to suffer from regularly in middle age?

2. Who is Sam's husband?

3. Who is Sam's daughter?

4. What city does Sam live in?

5. In Chapter 11, what kind of group comes to the place Sam works?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 13, what does Sam really think of the brutal college admissions competition?

2. What does Ally think about one day telling Sam about her secret relationship?

3. What does Sam think of MH when she first meets her?

4. What does Ally do with her secret boyfriend even though she has been cautioned against it many times?

5. In Chapter 9, how does Sam react to the woman on her porch?

6. What happens when Sam goes to a community meeting in her new neighborhood?

7. What is going on with Lily, Sam's mother, in Part I?

8. How does Sam afford the house she buys in Part I?

9. What is Matt's first reaction when Sam tells him she is leaving him?

10. What does Matt seem to think Sam's decision to leave him might really be mostly about?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How do Sam's anxieties begin to take over a larger and larger part of her life as the novel progresses? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 2

What role do politics and ideology seem to play in Sam's and Matthew's relationship, from the beginning to their separation? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 3

What parallels does Spiotta draw between the upheaval in American political and cultural life and in Sam's own life? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

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