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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 does the narrator speculate that the archaeologists will find in the city?

2. What might be a typical soap item disguised as something else in the catalog?

3. Who was Howard's client?

4. According to the narrator, how do Camper people drive?

5. What was the narrator's mother cooking for dinner?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the narrator attribute his academic doom to classroom seating?

2. How does the narrator recall growing up in his family in small-town Indiana?

3. What are the typical bumper sticker messages found on campers as opposed to the stickers found on vans?

4. Why do people find items such as those found in the Johnson Smith catalog to be humorous?

5. What prompts the narrator's memory about the great ice cream war?

6. How does the narrator's experience in the Lincoln Tunnel mirror his demeanor during his school years?

7. What scenario does the narrator imagine in which archaeologists discover television advertising and what are their perceptions of it?

8. What has the NLGA done to try to counteract the negative perceptions of lemons?

9. Describe how Mr. Leggett managed to drive The Happy Cow out of business.

10. How was the great Ice Cream War another example of brains vs. brawn in the narrator's life?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Shepherd was a master at dramatic devices. Choose an example of symbolism, metaphors, and irony. Briefly describe them and identify the technique which they embody.

Essay Topic 2

Why did Shepherd choose to use the first person narrator perspective for the stories? What does this point of view entail? What do you know about the characters and the plot lines that you would not know from a different point of view? What do you NOT know about the characters and plot lines based on this point of view?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Shepherd's writing style. How is he different from other writers of his time? What are some of his characteristic writing techniques? Identify some examples of his classic style in this book.

(see the answer keys)

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