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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. How did Alex's father die?

2. Who was the principal at Alex's school before Mr. Alphonse took over?

3. What was the name Mr. Alphonse's secretary in Chapter 20?

4. What was the name of the neighbor who stared at Alex when she met her aunt at her old house and then sat on the front steps after Marla left?

5. Where did Alex's father tell her he had inquired about a secretarial job for her?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Mrs. Gyzinska visit Alex late one night at the apartment?

2. Why did Alex think she was told to take calculus again her senior year in high school?

3. What did Alex see after the air raid drill at school?

4. What happened at prom?

5. Who did Alex meet when she went for a walk around midnight in Chapter 24?

6. Why did Alex get mad at Mrs. Gyzinska in Chapter 23?

7. How did dragons help an older farm couple in Kansas?

8. What would Beatrice do when Alex spent long hours at the library nearly daily?

9. What were students to do during an air raid drill?

10. What did Alex's father tell her in a letter about her future after high school?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Gender roles are expectations and behaviors a society has for people based on their gender—male or female. In When Women Were Dragons, gender roles force women to play subservient roles and limit the opportunities they have to direct their lives. How do gender roles affect women and girls in the novel?

Essay Topic 2

An allusion is a figure of speech that does not directly refer to a person, place, or thing. What are some allusions in When Women Were Dragons? Why might it be difficult to decipher an allusion just by the context of a passage in a book? How do the allusions Barnhill uses help readers’ understanding of characters or concepts?

Essay Topic 3

What a reader knows about events and characters is determined by the point of view in a book. Points of view are used in When Women Were Dragons? How do these viewpoints influence what readers know about events and characters? How do they help readers connect with and understand characters?

(see the answer keys)

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