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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 the baby hedgehogs die?

2. What startling request was in the letter Captain Creech wrote to mother after his departure?

3. What did Gerald name his new owl?

4. What animal was in the middle of the olive press pulling the grindstone?

5. What did Gerald feed his new owl?

Short Essay Questions

1. What sound woke Larry in the middle of the night that caused him to wake the rest of the family? What did Gerald tell them all that explained things? What had caused the noise?

2. What did Gerald do with his owl when he got home? What name did he give his owl? Where did he place the owl once he had tended to him?

3. When Margo, Mother, Fan and Prue took the dogs with them shopping, what happened?

4. Where did Margo go for treatment for her acne and weight gain? With whom did she stay? Was the treatment successful?

5. Who arrived at the house in the middle of the night? Where did they come from and why did they come to the villa? How did the family react to their arrival?

6. What did Gerald observe about the women and the machinery of pressing olives?

7. What did Donald want to read to Larry? What was Larry's response? What was Mother's response?

8. What unusual method did Donald and Max have for leaving the villa on the night of their visit? What happened as they left?

9. Who did Gerald and his mother find sitting on their front porch the afternoon they returned from their excursion into the olive groves? Where did this person come from and why? How did Mother get along with this new guest?

10. What did Gerald find in a field an old woman was cultivating? What did Gerald do with his find?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Gerald says upon introducing Theodore Stephanides to his story, "...someone who was going to become immediately the most important person in my life. To me, Theodore was one of the most remarkable people I had ever met." Explain who Theodore Stephanides is, and why he is so important in Gerald's life.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the importance of the chapter "Interlude for Spirits" to the memoir. Why did the author choose this title for the chapter? How does this chapter fit in with the rest of the memoir? Which characters are in the spotlight in this chapter and why?

Essay Topic 3

There are many important scenes in the memoir in which the whole family reacts to something Gerald has done. One is the family's reaction to Pavlo. Another is the description of the turtle on the veranda. By their reactions, the family provides us with important parts of their personalities. Compare and contrast these two important examples of the family reacting to something Gerald has done, and discuss what we learn about the people involved.

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