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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In our middle years, we may seek to reconnect with our _____________.
(a) Roots.
(b) Cousins.
(c) Family roles.
(d) Elementary school friends.

2. What famous author's memoir entitled Speak, Memory does Viorst reference at the end of Chapter 14?
(a) Leo Tolstoy
(b) Vladimir Nabokov
(c) Frank McCourt
(d) James Joyce

3. In what form of internalization do we take on aspects of those we have loved?
(a) Personification.
(b) Identification.
(c) Depression.
(d) Chameleonization.

4. According to Chapter 14, parents suffer from the one of the following in a similar fashion to children.
(a) Separation anxiety.
(b) Insecurity about themselves.
(c) Oedipus complex.
(d) Fear of abandonment.

5. Viorst references The World According to Garp and a mishearing of this term by a child.
(a) Earthquake.
(b) Undertow.
(c) Thunder.
(d) Tsunami.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Viorst, what types of feelings are present in ALL friendships?

2. Who said, "In erotic love, two people who were separate become one. In motherly love, two people who were one become separate."

3. In this book, mentioned in Chapter 12, it is stated that despite sexual feelings toward friends of the same sex, individuals need not necessarily define themselves as "homosexual." What is the name of the book?

4. Viorst says, "Losing is the price we pay for __________."

5. A man in his forties confessed to Viorst that he reviewed his life insurance policy after he was diagnosed with what?

Short Essay Questions

1. Which necessary loss is discussed in Chapter 12?

2. According to Chapter 17, what redefines us throughout our lives?

3. What is described as the ultimate separation in Chapter 18?

4. How does baggage from childhood put pressure on a marriage?

5. Other than a parent, what other things impact who a child becomes?

6. Why does our focus shift in middle age to discovering our family's history?

7. What does Freud say about religious thoughts of an afterlife?

8. Name two of the stages of mourning that Viorst describes in Chapter 16.

9. What does it mean if a child and mother aren't a good fit?

10. In thinking about losses as a lifelong theme, name some of the juxtapositions that Viorst discusses in Chapter 20.

(see the answer keys)

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