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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 insects did Rawlings believe was the biggest annoyance?

2. According to Rawlings, the test of true beauty was the ability to withstand what?

3. According to Rawlings, what color ant ate only dead tissue and had a deadly bite?

4. Which of the following do rattlesnakes have a poor sense of?

5. Which of the following birds did Rawlings watch daily and claim were "honeymooning"?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the work around Rawlings's farm change in the heat of the summer?

2. What trouble did ants give Rawlings during planting season on the farm?

3. How did Rawlings feel about the yachtsman she met in Sanford?

4. What trouble did Rawlings get into with her neighbors around Christmas in regard to her staff?

5. What happened when Rawlings's car got stuck in the soft sand near her farm?

6. How did Rawlings's diet change when she was hospitalized in Cross Creek?

7. What did Rawlings learn about her fear of snakes while she was out hunting with Ross?

8. What type of snakes lived on Rawlings's property, and how did she feel about these different varieties?

9. What animals did Rawlings hunt with her Aunt Wilmer, and how did the women get along during their hunting trip?

10. Why did Rawlings fire Raymond?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How did Widow Slater's religious beliefs affect her daily life and the life of her children? How did Rawlings treat the Widow Slater and her family? How did Rawlings's treatment of the family compare to the way she represented the family in the text? What can the reader learn about Rawlings's own religious beliefs through witnessing her reaction to Widow Slater's?

Essay Topic 2

Throughout the memoir, Rawlings contemplates what it means to be rich and what it means to be poor, even going so far as to say the poor are "a cleaned, naked version of the rich." What do you think Rawlings meant by this statement? To whom was she referring when she made it? Then, choose one rich person and one poor person that lived in Cross Creek. Do you think this statement reflects the relationship between these two people? Finally, describe Rawlings's view on the rich and poor at the end of the memoir. Had her views on these two classes of people changed through her experiences at Cross Creek?

Essay Topic 3

Shortly after Rawlings moved to Cross Creek, she was inundated with dating proposals from men who lived there. First, give a brief timeline of Rawlings romantic life throughout the course of the memoir. Then, choose two men who courted and Rawlings and describe them. What was Rawlings's reaction to each of these men's advances? What conclusions did Rawlings make about men in general through the courting process she experienced in Cross Creek? Do you think Rawlings's reactions to the men were too strong?

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