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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. When did Will begin working for Sir Louis?

2. Who steps in to help care for Theo?

3. What second thing does Ben compare his reading lessons to?

4. How does Ben react when Marion tells him about her meeting with his teacher?

5. What does Wilhelmina say that the Lady is like?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Mary's husband die?

2. What does Sir Louis do when he notices that Dick is interested in his daughter?

3. What women does the book Sir Louis gives Dick say are the most beautiful in the world?

4. Why does Don think the special ed reading program might be good for Ben?

5. What trip does Whittington say he must take?

6. What does the tabby from down the road bring to the barn?

7. What effect do the bells have on Dick as he heads down the river to try to see Mary?

8. What did Dick Whittington spend his fortune on in his last years?

9. What happens to Gent when autumn arrives?

10. What proposition does Sir Louis have for Dick?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the settings in the novel.

1) What role does the barn play as a setting in the novel? How does the setting of the barn affect the story and the reader's experience?

2) What role does London play as a setting in the novel? How is the time and place of Dick Whittington's life contrasted with the barn?

3) What other settings affect the novel, such as exotic Tripoli, and the reading program classroom?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss friendship in the novel.

1) How do Whittington and the Lady become friends? How is their friendship important to them? How does it affect them and the other animals in the barn?

2) How and why do Dick Whittington and his cat become friends? How does their friendship affect Dick?

3) What other friendships are there in the novel? How do friendships affect the characters?

Essay Topic 3

Grief and loss are important issues that the characters in the novel face. Discuss grief and loss.

1) How do Ben and Abby deal with their grief over the loss of their mother and father? How do they react to loss and how does loss affect them?

2) How does Dick Whittington react to loss, including the losses from the plague, his sense of loss of his home, the loss of Mary, and the loss of his cat? How does loss affect him?

3) How do other characters, including the Lady and Whittington, deal with loss?

(see the answer keys)

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