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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. Who says hello to Lizzie on Saturday when she is at the supermarket?

2. Who repeatedly urges Lizzie to have a sexual encounter with Will while Ben and Eli are away?

3. What mode of transportation do Lizzie and Henry use during their talk about Henry's bad thoughts in Chapter Three?

4. NASA reports in Chapter Three that they have discovered how many "new Earth-sized planets" (131)?

5. On Will's last day in New York City, he and Lizzie visit what type of location?

Short Essay Questions

1. For what reason does Offill allude to C.S. Lewis's novel Prince Caspian in Chapter Four?

2. How does Ben feel about the results of the election and how does Offill provide this information to the reader?

3. What solution does Lizzie devise in response to Henry's problem, as revealed in Chapter Six?

4. What do the keys featured in Chapter Three symbolize?

5. In what way does Offill use the character of Lorraine to demonstrate the frustration felt by many Americans in the wake of the 2016 election?

6. In what kind of dwelling do Ben and Catherine live and what is the significance of this fact?

7. To which historical event does Lizzie compare the U.S. presidential election of 2016 and why?

8. For what reason does Lizzie stay home during the three weeks of Ben and Eli's absence in Chapter Four?

9. What drastic step does Sylvia decide to take in Chapter Four?

10. What political event has just occurred when Chapter Three begins?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

William Faulkner once famously claimed that the most important literature deals with the subject of the human heart in conflict with itself. Explain how the theme of Human versus Self is demonstrated within Offill’s novel Weather: A Novel. Create a decisive, arguable claim and prove it with quotes from the novel.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the role of addiction with Offill's text Weather: A Novel. What messages are being sent about the nature of addiction and what response does the text intend to provoke from its audience?

Essay Topic 3

Choose an object from Weather: A Novel, such as the green coat, the educational video game, the slips of paper on which Henry writes his horrific visions, or some other symbolic object and discuss its overall meaning and its connection to themes within the text.

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