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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 narrator's name, and how old is he?

2. How did the water-spider Gerald caught decide where to build her home?

3. What reason was Gerald given for his mother wanting a bamboo house?

4. On one of his solo adventures, where did Gerald find a water-spider he brought home to study?

5. How did Gerald find the seahorses?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the "hypocritical prayer?" What did Gerald observe about this creature?

2. How did Leslie react to settling into their new home? What did he set about to do while in Corfu? How did his mother react to this plan?

3. What did Gerald bring with him for his nighttime fishing expedition? What did he do with his treasures before returning home? What did Taki give Gerald to appease Mother for the late hour of Gerald's return?

4. Who was Kokino? What does Kokino mean in Greek? What did Kokino and Gerald do together?

5. What creature did Gerald discover on an afternoon trek to the lake alone? Why was this creature especially important to Gerald? What was unique about this creature?

6. What was "catching cuttlefish with love?" How did it work? What was Gerald's response to this interesting fishing style?

7. Who was Sven? How did he come upon the Durrell family? What was Sven's unusual talent that drove the family crazy? What did Gerald learn Sven had in common with him?

8. Who was Sally? Where did Sally come from? How did the name Sally come to be? Why was Gerald excited to have Sally as a member of the household?

9. What did mother have Costas construct in the yard? How did she explain the construction to Gerald? What was Gerald's mother really having built and why?

10. Who was the first friend the family made upon arriving on the island of Corfu? What important help did this new friend give Gerald and his family?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Who is Kralefsky? He is given an opportunity to tell a story in Chapter Nine. What is the story he tells, and why does Gerald doubt the truth of the story?

Essay Topic 2

Describe Mother and her different roles in the memoir. She is a mother and the keeper of the Durrell family. What else does the reader know about her from reading the memoir? How does she relate to others?

Essay Topic 3

Before Chapter Four, Durrell has placed a quote from Professor Anstead, "Hospitality is, indeed, now no less than in classical times, a sacred duty in these islands, and it is a duty more conscientiously performed." How does this quote apply to the Durrell family? What are some examples of the hospitality they have offered to guests? What kinds of hospitality have been offered to them?

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