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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 does Jean's mother do when she identifies the sound coming from next door?

2. In Jean's dream of getting married, who is her husband?

3. Why don't Melanie and Jean think what they are doing is the "unnatural passions" they hear about?

4. What does Jean ask for when her mother takes her to town to buy mince?

5. Who invites Jean to go to the seaside?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who invites Jean to go to the seaside? What happens and why does her mother not let her?

2. Describe Jean's mother.

3. How does her mother tell the story of Jean's adoption?

4. When she is young and still trying to understand men and marriage, what is Jean's general opinion of men? Where does it come from?

5. In the beginning of the chapter, Leviticus, what do Jean and her mother hear coming from Next Door? What do they do about it?

6. Explain why this statement is relevant to Jean's predicament at school: "What constitutes a problem is not the thing, or the environment where we find the thing, but the conjunction of the two."

7. What happened in sewing class when the class worked on cross stitching projects?

8. How did Jean's mother get started with the Society for the Lost?

9. How does Jean make friends with Melanie?

10. What does the prince write about perfection?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

At the end of one of the chapters in the book, the author includes a brief description of a historical moment of the storming of the Winter Palace. It adds depth to her story because although she shows us just a moment of relative inaction, the reader knows the outcome of the historical moment and so gets a hint of a possible outcome for her story.

Part 1. What was the storming of the Winter Palace that she referred to, and how did it relate to her story?

Part 2. Choose a pivotal moment in your own life that you can somehow equate with a moment in history. What was the moment in your life? What historical moment?

Part 3. Analyze how the moment of your own life is comparable to that moment in history, and what does representing that moment in history bring to your own story?

Essay Topic 2

None of the references to famous people, stories, or other things are in the novel by accident. The author brings them up specifically for their relevance to some aspect of her story. Choose one of the many popular or Biblical references in the novel to explain.

Part 1. What reference is made? When in the story is it made?

Part 2. Describe the reference thoroughly, making sure to include the parts that relate to ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT.

Part 3. How does this reference relate back to Jean's story? What relevance does it have? What insight or depth does it bring with it that was missing?

Essay Topic 3

One of the five fundamental components of storytelling discussed is the element of style.

Part 1. What is the element of style?

Part 2. Give some examples of literature or other popular stories where style has been a major factor in the enjoyment of the story.

Part 3. Discuss the style used in the novel. How effective was it?

(see the answer keys)

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