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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 Susanna White commission to bring to the colony that the others view as extravagant?

2. When is the only time Alice is thankful to see Myles Standish with his gun ready?

3. What makes Alice doubt that the reasons for tragedies are God's intentions?

4. What does Dorothy's secret letter to her mother say?

5. What is one action the midwife tells Dorothy to try to increase her fertility?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Plymouth do with some of its dead in the worst of its first winter?

2. Why does John Billington shoot Newcomen?

3. What promise does Alice Bradford make to Dorothy in Part III?

4. How does Eleanor react when Billington tells her about his crime?

5. What problems start on the journey to the new world almost immediately?

6. What is William Bradford angry with Thomas Weston about in Part IV?

7. What happens to a nameless young girl in Part III?

8. What problem does William Bradford have with the flowers Dorothy wants for her wedding bouquet?

9. Who arrives on the ship with the newcomers and how does John Billington feel about this person?

10. What crosses Alice's path on her way to the dock in Part III that she takes as an ill omen?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Nesbit portray the Plymouth colonists' relationship with the Indians? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 2

How do the various mothers in this novel - Dorothy, Eleanor, and many others - deal with the loss of their infants or children, and the grief that follows? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 3

What characteristics, failings, and traits does Thomas Weston embody, and what do you think Nesbit uses his character to communicate to the reader about the workings of British society and the Plymouth colony? Write an essay explaining your answers.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 737 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample