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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 many feet did Michael and his companions climb in thirty miles when they drove to the tea estate?

2. During the war, where did Lalla open up a boarding house?

3. How far was it from Galle to Colombo?

4. Who was David Grenier's wife?

5. What type of vehicle did Mervyn drive when he nearly killed the three older children and himself?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Doris coach the three older children to do when Mervyn lapsed into one of his alcoholic states?

2. What was Michael's Aunt Dolly like?

3. How did Michael get a bath when he was five and attending a boarding school?

4. What did it take to build a road from Colombo to Kandy?

5. When Mervyn was in his twenties, why did he stop a train ten miles out of Colombo?

6. How did Lalla die?

7. What did Doris do when she was leaving Mervyn and he threw the car key into the tea bushes?

8. Why did it take so long to drive from Colombo to the tea estate?

9. How did Lalla's father throw caution to the wind when he married a Dickman?

10. Michael recorded sounds of the night in the jungle when he was in Ceylon. What did he hear when he played the tape back in Canada?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Michael and the children came upon a dead kabaragoya on the beach. Compare the kabaragoya and the thalagoya.

Essay Topic 2

Mervyn struggled with dipsomania. Discuss dipsomania and how it affected Mervyn and his family.

Essay Topic 3

Lalla and Rene de Saram were friends who were neighbors and became widows. Compare Lalla and Rene.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 839 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample