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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 Echo's frame of mind as she spells her words?

2. How was Artie able to overcome her childhood?

3. What did Artie do right after kissing Dorothea after the spelling bee?

4. What does Echo feel when her opponent crumbles?

5. How many times did Echo read Robinson Crusoe?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Artie suggest to Echo to practice for the National Spelling Bee?

2. How is Artie's choice of seat at the Spelling Bee a metaphor for her life?

3. Why does Artie feel that she has fulfilled her commitment to Echo?

4. Why does Dorothea cut a lock of Artie's hair?

5. Why are Artie and Echo arguing over Dorothea as scene 4 opens?

6. Why do you think Artie left her daughter with Dorothea, despite her own traumatic childhood with her mother?

7. Why do you think that Echo put on the wings in the beginning of scene 5?

8. How do Artie and Dorothea feel about Echo's winning of the spelling bee?

9. Do you think Artie realizes the importance of the spelling bee to Echo?

10. Why do you think Dorothea wanted Echo to be so willing to give forgiveness?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

At some points in the play, Artie seems to have freed herself of her past and becomes a successful, functioning, happy individual. At what point is this true, and which events turn her life back around into the character she again becomes at the end of the play?

Essay Topic 2

Artie said she could remember everything and was against total recall as a form of learning. Despite this, she drilled Echo repeatedly on spelling words. Why do you think she chose to teach Echo in this way? What other factors may have played into her decision?

Essay Topic 3

The title of the play is a background theme throughout the play. Discuss why this title is appropriate for the play. Give examples of how it is used throughout the play.

(see the answer keys)

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