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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 Phoebe's attitude as she carries the basket filled with lunch up to the field hands?

2. Where did Jack's father perform?

3. What time of day is it when Jack brings in the herd from the upper pasture?

4. What is in the basket Phoebe brings to Jack?

5. How old is the youngest child at the time of the accident?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Jack react every time he relives the image of his brother David being crushed by the cultipacker?

2. Although he practices in the hayloft and is part of the civic orchestra, Jack refuses to play his horn either at church or at home. Why?

3. Now that his father is home to stay, what does Jack with his free time. Why?

4. How does Jack feel after asking Yegudkin if he will ever play the horn as well as the teacher? How does Yegudkin respond?

5. How does Jack respond to Yegudkin's performance on the French horn? How is the performance described?

6. Who is involved in the accident and how old are they? Why is the accident seem particularly difficult for the two surviving children?

7. How does Jack's house compare to his work? What senses are aroused at home? What senses are aroused when he is out on the tractor? Why does Jack feel so uncomfortable in his home?

8. How does the narrator describe the machinery Jack drives on the farm? Why is this image so powerful? How does it compare to the usual image associated with farm equipment?

9. Dale Hawthorne decides against suicide. Why does he do so? What does he do instead of killing himself?

10. While Jack is sitting with Phoebe under the tree at lunchtime, he senses she wants to say something to him. How does he react? What might Phoebe wanted to talk about with her brother?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

As he is working on the tractor after his brother's death, Jack sees the field he is plowing and sees "stones lay everywhere, yellowed in the sunlight, a field of misshapen skulls." Discuss this image.

Essay Topic 2

Who are Dale and Betty Hawthorne? What are they like before the accident and after? How does the death of their son affect them?

Essay Topic 3

When Jack asks Yegudkin, "You think I'll ever play like that?" Yegudkin laughs loudly and says, "Play like me?" What does Yegudkin mean by his reply, and how does it affect Jack?

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