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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. Where is the American Legion headquartered?

2. What refers to the act of holding back, controlling, or checking?

3. What diagnosis does the family internist give for Tara's condition in Chapter 6?

4. Why has Donna taken to wearing sunglasses all the time in Chapter 11?

5. What refers to an object, action, or idea that represents something other than itself?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Tara's response to being kicked off the volleyball team in Chapter 3?

2. How does Chapter 11 serve the plot of the narrative? How do the events in this chapter relate to those in Chapter 10?

3. What is tragic about the image that Tara projects about herself versus the reality in Chapter 3?

4. How are the relationships between Tara and her friends described in Chapter 7?

5. How does Tara describe her relationship with her mother in Chapter 2? How does she describe her friends?

6. What leads up to Tara's stealing in Chapter 12? What does she do after stealing?

7. How does Tara come to feel about Keesha in Chapter 5? Why? What does this evolve into?

8. How do Tara and their friends describe their personal fears in Chapter 3?

9. How has Tara's erratic behavior evolved at the beginning of Chapter 4? What does Tara do about her condition?

10. What leads Tara to study religion in Chapter 6? How is this perceived by her family?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Define and identify internal and external conflict in narrative literature. What conflicts does Tara face internally? What conflicts does she face in the world? How are these related in this novel? In what ways does Tara struggle with her own mind, and how does this struggle manifest itself?

Essay Topic 2

Analyze and discuss the climax of the narrative and the character of Mr. Jacobson in the novel. How does Tara's father know Mr. Jacobson? What questions does Mr. Jacobson ask Tara?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss stereotypes in the novel and in real life. How realistic are the characters of Keesha, Kristin and Anna? Are these stereotypes realistic depictions of people you can relate to? Why or why not? Is there a basis in the stereotypes? Are they simply Tara's way of identifying people?

(see the answer keys)

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