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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. In Chapter 5, what does Danny's father tell him when Danny asks why his mother left?

2. In Chapter 2, where does Danny go with his father every Saturday?

3. In Chapter 3, what does Maeve tell her father is not hers and Danny's responsibility?

4. Where does Maeve go to college?

5. In Chapter 6, where does Danny feel most at home?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter 2, what does Danny's father do for a family with a very sick child that Maeve is surprised to hear about?

2. In Chapter 7, what does Maeve tell Danny about her feelings towards Andrea and her children?

3. When Cyril Conroy bought the Dutch House, what kind of a state was it in?

4. Why is there a portrait of Maeve hanging in the drawing room instead of Maeve's and Danny's mother?

5. In Chapter 3, what does Andrea do one day that greatly surprises Danny and Maeve?

6. In Chapter 6, what does Danny think, in hindsight, was a huge mistake he and Maeve made after their father died?

7. In Chapter 5, what does Maeve remember about her mother's feelings about the Dutch House?

8. In Chapter 2, what does Danny do every Saturday with his father, and why is it important?

9. In Chapter 6, what does Danny's father tell him about his eventual role in his business?

10. In Chapter 5, what does Danny's father do on a whim that is hugely significant for Danny?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Chapter 13, Danny buys a house for his wife without asking her for her opinion on the house first. Write an essay analyzing the differences and similarities between Danny's choice to buy a house this way and his father Cyril's choice to buy the Dutch House under similar circumstances decades earlier.

Essay Topic 2

At different points all throughout the novel, Danny wonders to himself and aloud to Maeve how accurate their memories and recollections of the past are. Write an essay analyzing Patchett's treatment of the theme of memory, and on how reliable any one individual's memory of the past is in this novel.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay analyzing why Danny finally decides to at least pretend to forgive Elna for leaving the family when he was a child. When does he genuinely begin to let go of his anger, resentment and bitterness towards her?

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