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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. Which of the following name is found in the public records in Chapter 10?

2. Who does Gemma tell the fairy tale story to in Chapter 5?

3. What do Becca's nieces and nephew ask for in Chapter 4?

4. Where are Becca and Gemma in Chapter 7?

5. What does Becca note about Gemma's family in Chapter 6?

Short Essay Questions

1. After Gemma's funeral, what do Becca's parents reveal was found among Gemma's things?

2. What are the documents that Becca falls asleep going over in Chapter 6?

3. What does Sylvia press Gemma for a definition for in Chapter 9?

4. What does Gemma tell her granddaughters about the baby born to the King and Queen in the story?

5. While going through Gemma's box of mementos in Chapter 6, what does Becca realize about them?

6. In Chapter 6, why does Becca suppose Gemma was so caught up with the part of her story which said the curse would affect Briar Rose's whole family?

7. When she investigates her grandmother's newspaper clippings, what does Becca learn from Arnie at the Palladium Times in Oswego?

8. What does Becca admit to her father is the real reason she is going to work in Chapter 8?

9. Besides the document with an unknown name on it, what is inside the carved box which had belonged to Gemma?

10. What do the Berlins debate about Gemma's real name in Chapter 4?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze and interpret the relationship between Becca and Stan. What do they feel for one another? How does their relationship evolve as the novel progresses? How does Stan help Becca on her quest for answers?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the motif of death in the novel "Briar Rose". How does Yolen illustrate the death motif throughout the novel? What do the characters think of death? How do the characters, particularly Becca, react to the deaths?

Essay Topic 3

Analyze and interpret the protagonist of the novel, Becca Berlin. What are Becca's defining character traits? Who is she close to in the novel? What happens to Becca throughout the novel?

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