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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What preoccupies Virginia?
(a) Leonard's worry over her.
(b) The fate of 'Clarissa' in her novel.
(c) The price of children's coats in Harrods.
(d) The train time-table.

2. What jewelry is Laura wearing?
(a) Three ivory bangles.
(b) Gold chains and rings.
(c) An ivory bangle.
(d) An ivory pendant.

3. What does Nelly bring from London?
(a) China tea and sugared ginger.
(b) A child's coat from Harrods.
(c) China tea and digestive biscuits.
(d) Jasmine tea and melting moments.

4. What is important about the imagery of the squirrel's tail?
(a) Its shape makes us question ourselves on environmental issues.
(b) Its question mark shape links to Laura's musing about death.
(c) It reminds us to look out for squirrels when we are driving.
(d) It's imagery never been used previously in literature.

5. Which character does Julia describe as strange?
(a) Clarissa.
(b) Mary.
(c) Richard.
(d) Louis.

6. What is disturbing about Virginia kissing Vanessa?
(a) It is done behind Nelly's back.
(b) It is done behind Leonard's back.
(c) It happens on the train to London.
(d) It is not quite innocent.

7. What does Laura remember being sold in novelty shops?
(a) Plastic cockroaches.
(b) Candles.
(c) Cans of boiled candy.
(d) Cans of peanuts.

8. What does Clarissa imagine her roses appear to be, according to Mary's view of the world?
(a) Symbolic of transience.
(b) Unnecessary and expensive.
(c) Things of beauty and substance.
(d) Symbolic of oppression.

9. How does Virginia describe Vanessa's hand?
(a) Elegant and graceful.
(b) Skinny.
(c) Moist and fat.
(d) Plump.

10. What does the unusual light in Richard's apartment reveal?
(a) That he really needs to fire his cleaning lady.
(b) The flaws and smallness of his life's detritus.
(c) His astonishing taste in art.
(d) The way the illness has ravaged his face and body.

11. As she drives, in what does Laura find consolation?
(a) The impeccable way she has organized things.
(b) That the car is clean.
(c) That she has remembered to bring her book.
(d) That her earrings match her bracelet.

12. How much of her book has Laura now read?
(a) Half of it.
(b) All of it.
(c) Three quarters of it.
(d) More than a third of it.

13. Why can't Laura take the sleeping pills?
(a) She feels guilty.
(b) They are too strong.
(c) They are past use-by date.
(d) She is pregnant.

14. To Clarissa, what does Mary resemble?
(a) A glamor-puss.
(b) A feral child.
(c) A stray dog.
(d) An Amazon.

15. How does this chapter begin?
(a) With a cynical comment on married life.
(b) With Richie having a nightmare.
(c) With Laura feeling ashamed.
(d) With the ordinary routines and rituals of going to bed.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does Clarissa find Richard?

2. At what time of day does Virginia set off for a walk?

3. What does Laura feel herself to be?

4. From the description at the beginning of this chapter, what would be a good word to use to describe Walter Hardy's expression?

5. What is Louis' profession?

(see the answer keys)

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