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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 item does Robin buy at a thrift shop because it reminds him of a favorite painting?

2. What does Robin compare his relationship to Sophie to?

3. Why does Robin turn down an invitation to go out to dinner with his classmates after the college art class?

4. What strategy do Robin and Sophie have to get home after school without being ridiculed?

5. What kind of glasses does the first college girl that Robin sees wear?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Robin feel when he hears someone at his high school use the term "Don't be such a Stein?"

2. Why does Sophie's mother react so negatively to the relationship between Robin and Sophie?

3. Why does Robin say that he feels like he has "won the lottery?"

4. Why does Robin start to think about Sophie as he is drawing the naked model?

5. What do Robin and Sophie do when they hear his parents coming home early from work?

6. Why does Sophie say that she likes being an "outlaw?"

7. Explain why Robin sneaks past his parents when he gets home from school in order to avoid them.

8. Why does Robin say that he has turned Sophie into more of an outcast than an outlaw?

9. Why is Robin nervous before his first college art class?

10. Why is Robin uncomfortable when he has to draw a naked male model for his art class?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The painting of two lovers by Renoir that hangs in the art museum is a favorite of both Robin and Sophie. They meet at the painting over Christmas break and it is the place where the book ends. How is the painting representative of the relationship between Robin and Sophie? Discuss important moments in the text when the painting appears and plays a role. Why was this particular painting chosen by the author?

Essay Topic 2

Robin buys a yellow hat from a thrift shop in order to look more like a man in a Renoir painting at the art museum. From that day forward, the hat is with Robin all the time. Give examples of where the hat shows up in the text and what role it plays in those moments. How does the hat serve as a symbol? Why do you believe that Robin is so attached to the hat?

Essay Topic 3

Robin feels like he is living two separate lives -- one in high school and one in college. Compare and contrast the way that Robin is treated at both places. Why does Robin tell Sophie that he feels "at home" when he is at the college class? What do the differences say about high school and college life?

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