View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who is it that compliments Lucy by referring to her as a "forward-looking lady?"
(a) Petrus.
(b) Bev Shaw.
(c) Ettinger.
(d) Bill Shaw.

2. Which character in the final chapter says, "I am determined to be a good person. You should try to be a good person too?"
(a) Bev.
(b) Lucy.
(c) Bill Shaw.
(d) Helen.

3. What has David told Rosalind is a hobby, but in fact is something that "consumes" him?
(a) Tutoring.
(b) His dog.
(c) His opera.
(d) Selling vegetables at the market.

4. When David goes back to the Eastern Cape where Lucy is, what excuse does he make up for being there?
(a) He says he has a job interview in the area.
(b) He says he has a business proposition for Bill Shaw.
(c) He says he has to talk to Bev.
(d) He says he left his work projects at Lucy's house.

5. When David visits Lucy, what news does Lucy offer David when he asks her how she is?
(a) That she is depressed and being treated for depression.
(b) That she is dieting and plans to lose forty pounds.
(c) That she has contracted a serious disease.
(d) That she is pregnant.

Short Answer Questions

1. What action of Petrus frustrates David as Petrus prepares for the upcoming event.

2. At the meeting between Rosalind and David, something about his appearance makes her "shudder." What is it?

3. When the fight between David and the other person is over, what does Lucy ask of David?

4. What is the musical instrument that David takes up and composes music on?

5. Who is the new person living at Petrus's house?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does David's description of Desiree suggest?

2. After Lucy is raped and she and David give their report to the police, David asks her why she omitted the fact that she was raped. What reason does she give her father for this omission?

3. David explodes at Pollux and says to himself, "Swine. . .Teach him a lesson. Show him his place." How do these remarks reveal the racial attitudes David evidently has?

4. Do Petrus's responses to David's rage about the assault seem truly suspicious or might the reader be judging them through David's lens?

5. What does David make of Lucy's claim that she only went to the police after the attack for insurance purposes?

6. David mentions that he has "never been given to lingering involvements" as he tries to figure out what is driving him to go see Melanie's play. What then motivates him to go?

7. What is there about Lucy's description of her rape that she thinks that David cannot before this have understood?

8. Is there a symbolic significance to the characters of his libretto in progress "fading away" and being replaced by the corpses of dogs, his new work?

9. In Chapter 16, when David talks with Bev about his fear of Lucy living alone on the farm, he says he was there and knows what Lucy has been through. Bev responds that he was not there for her. How does David react to that claim?

10. How is David's remark "If she [Bev] is poor, he is bankrupt," that concludes this chapter revealing?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,092 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample