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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. How did Posey often spend holidays after the divorce?

2. What one thing did Chick notice his parents did together that seemed to make them both happy?

3. Why did Chick and his sister have trouble accepting that their parents were going to get divorced?

4. Where does Chick go after he wakes from his fall from the water tower?

5. Why does Chick believe Posey lost all her friends after the divorce?

Short Essay Questions

1. What offends Chick when a man calls his mother a divorcee?

2. Why is the word please carved into the side of tree?

3. What happens on the way to Chick's hometown?

4. What reason does Posey give for dumping food given to the family by nuns down the disposal?

5. What was Posey's profession at the time of the divorce?

6. What impact does the setting have on Chick's family after the divorce?

7. Why does the narrator say the story belongs to Chick Benetto?

8. What game does the narrator learn that Chick Benetto once played as a professional player?

9. What word did Chick's mother help Chick find the definition for despite his father's disapproval of her help?

10. What one thing does Chick recall always made his parents happy?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Who does Chick see standing over him after he jumps from the water tower? Why does Chick doubt what he is seeing? Who does Chick spend the rest of the day with? Why is this not possible? Why does the impossibility of this not clue Chick in to the idea that something is not right with him? What is the voice Chick continuously hears throughout the day? What does this voice mean to the reader? What does it ultimately mean to Chick? How does Chick respond to the voice?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss one of the following in detail, including examples from the novel:

1) Lessons Chick learned after spending the day with his dead mother

2) The time period in which the novel is set and how that might have influenced the behaviors of characters in the novel, both main characters and minor characters

3) The tone of the novel, including any changes to the tone that might take place as the plot continues to develop

Essay Topic 3

Discuss baseball. Why does Chick decide to go out for baseball? Why does Chick continue to play baseball? Why does Chick not tell his mother that his father comes to his college baseball games? Why does Chick leave college to play professional baseball? How does Posey feel about Chick making this choice? Does this baseball career give Chick the life he wants? Why or why not? Why does Chick finally decide to quit baseball? Why does Chick's father pressure him into playing an old-timers game? What is significant about this game?

(see the answer keys)

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