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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. How many failed marriages did the author's mother have after his father died?
(a) 1.
(b) 3.
(c) 4.
(d) 2.

2. The author's mother's motto, translated from French is, "you have to ____ in order to be beautiful."
(a) Sacrifice.
(b) Suffer.
(c) Practice.
(d) Work.

3. Three acts of God mentioned by the author that appear in scripture are the Exodus, the ___, and the entry into the Promised Land.
(a) Cross.
(b) Crucifixion.
(c) Covenant.
(d) Confession.

4. The author said that he told his father's story both as the child "I was in 1936 and still am in ___."
(a) 1985.
(b) 1975.
(c) 1990.
(d) 1960.

5. What was the make of the family car used for the 1936 suicide?
(a) Chevrolet.
(b) Chrysler.
(c) Hudson.
(d) Ford.

Short Answer Questions

1. What condition made it almost impossible for the author's mom to walk during her last year of life?

2. What place did the author see as an act of God in his life that he paralleled to the entry into the Promised Land?

3. When the dwarves are offered food, what do they think it is?

4. In the room in which the author writes, how many pieces of stained glass sit in his windows?

5. In the Introduction, how many books does the author mention that dealt with the headlines of his life?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did the author feel like a dwarf as depicted in C. S. Lewis' "The Last Battle?"

2. How did the author's mother's aging affect her life?

3. Why/how does the author identify with one of the stained glass images?

4. How do ministers lose touch with God?

5. Why did the author's mother have so few friends as she got older?

6. How does the author describe his father's suicide?

7. How did author's mom respond to his fictionalized version of his father's death and how did her reaction to this fist telling affect the author's writing about the death later?

8. How is the author's story, our story?

9. What was on the stained glass pieces in the author's office?

10. How did the author's mother's aging affect her sons' lives?

(see the answer keys)

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