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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 is the first thing the Lady says when she finally arises from her sleeping place?

2. What word is a boy struggling to write when Ben first visits the special reading class?

3. What does Bernie do on his errand that's not an errand?

4. What town does Dick meet Mary in after his return from Constantinople?

5. Who steps in to help care for Theo?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Mary Green look like?

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

3. What trip does Whittington say he must take?

4. What does Dick notice about the cat while the operation is going on?

5. How does Bernie react to finding the new animals in the barn after the livestock auction?

6. What proposition does Sir Louis have for Dick?

7. What happens to Gent when autumn arrives?

8. In what way does Ben pet Whittington, and how does Whittington respond?

9. How did Mary's husband die?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Ben struggles with reading. Discuss the role of reading in the novel and how it is portrayed.

1) What difficulties does Ben have with reading? What helps him learn to read?

2) Why is reading important in the novel? What are different characters' perspectives on reading, including Dick Whittington, the animals in the barn, the children, and their grandparents?

3) How do different characters learn to read? What variations are their in these characters relationships with reading?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the role of family in the novel.

1) How is family different from friends in the novel? What makes up a family?

2) How do characters lose their families, and how do they build new families?

3) What role do families fill for characters? Why is family important in the novel?

(see the answer keys)

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