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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 Nan planning to tell Jack?

2. What does Kit learn about her late husband and son?

3. What is ironic about Nan and Simon getting together?

4. What happens when Kit invites Paddy Hickey for tea?

5. Who finds out when Mother Clare is leaving Knockglen?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when Fonzie and Clodagh try to enter the bar at Healy Hotel?

2. What foils Nan's plans to tell Jack she is pregnant at Eve's cottage?

3. Why are Eve and Benny not happy with Nan's seeing Simon?

4. What does Emily find in Nan's room that indicates her ambition to join high society?

5. What does Nan do when she is sure she is pregnant?

6. What is the exchange between Jack and Benny the morning after Jack took Nan to a dance?

7. What is the resolution for Benny at the end of the novel?

8. What do Benny and Annabel learn about the lawyer?

9. What does Benny learn from Eve about where Jack and Nan went for their trysts.

10. How does Sean manipulate an invitation to the Hogan's house for Christmas?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay of at least two typed, double-spaced pages on Benny as an Unlikely Heroine. (1) Define her strengths and weaknesses. (2) Explain why you think

Maeve Binchy chose a girl like Benny to be the central character of the novel. (3) How do you see Benny as the epitome of a good friend? (4) Discuss Benny as

an overprotected young lady who acquiesces to her parents' rules.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay of at least two typed, double-spaced pages on the Symbolism of the Cottage in Circle of Friends. (1) How does the cottage symbolize permanence for Eve? (2) How does it symbolize security for Heather? (3) How does the cottage symbolize betrayal? Go into detail with these three points by pointing to passages from the novel.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay of at least two typed, double-spaced pages on Simon Westward's Money Problems. Discuss the two sides of Simon--his willingness to help Eve with her tuition money and Heather's obvious affection for him as contrasted with his dalliance with Nan while still pursuing the English widow in order to get the money to save his family's estate. Conclude with an observation about how financial problems often affect the personality of the people who have them.

(see the answer keys)

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