I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away Test | Mid-Book Test - Medium

Bill Bryson
This set of Lesson Plans consists of approximately 176 pages of tests, essay questions, lessons, and other teaching materials.
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I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away Test | Mid-Book Test - Medium

Bill Bryson
This set of Lesson Plans consists of approximately 176 pages of tests, essay questions, lessons, and other teaching materials.
Buy the I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away Lesson Plans
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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. Why doesn't Bryson like gardening with his wife?
(a) She is English and thus an expert gardener.
(b) She expects him to garden for hours at a time.
(c) He has to do all the work.
(d) She screams if she sees any insects.

2. What does Bill end up doing with all the food he buys at the supermarket?
(a) He eats his way through it and hates it.
(b) He throws half of it out.
(c) He makes his kids eat it all.
(d) He eats his way through it and buys more.

3. What does Bill say is a strange feature of their car?
(a) It dispenses ice.
(b) The steering wheel is heated.
(c) It has no cup holders.
(d) There is an indentation on the dashboard with no obvious use.

4. What does Bill say about the barber in his new hometown?
(a) He could talk the hind leg off a donkey.
(b) He reads more books than Bill does.
(c) He only seems to know hairstyles from the 1950's.
(d) He is fresh out of barber school and eager to try new things.

5. What is one complaint Bryson has about the small towns around him?
(a) That everyone uses their car to get around.
(b) That people are rude.
(c) That he can't find a decent dentist.
(d) There are no libraries.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Consuming Pleasures," what does Bill say about shopping in America?

2. Bryson finds summer blockbuster movies annoying, but what does he have a real problem with?

3. What does Bill say is ridiculous about a VCR?

4. What New Hampshire town did the Bryson family settle in during 1995?

5. How does Bill know so much about motels?

Short Essay Questions

1. Bryson has a nostalgic look at motels in "Room Service." How does he compare and contrast older motels with those of the mid 1990's?

2. Bryson relates how his attitude to the informality and familiarity in American life seemed an irritant when he returned to the United States. For Essay 19, "Number Please," relate some of the ways he has encountered this informality in America.

3. Bryson calls America "the ultimate shopping paradise" in "Consuming Pleasures." How does he support this statement?

4. How does Bryson feel about gardening? What are his feelings concerning gardening with his mate in "Gardening With My Wife"?

5. In "The Inefficiency Report," Bryson says "Our subject today is large-scale incompetence in my native land." Give some examples of what he believes are areas of incompetence in 1990s America.

6. In "Mail Call," what points does Bryson bring up to compare American post offices and British post offices? Why does he prefer American post offices?

7. In "Coming Home" Bryson says he is "gamely assessing" the concept of not being able to go home again. What circumstances took him away from the United States in the 1970s? How did he spend the following two decades in England? What is his reaction on returning to the United States in 1996?

8. What does Bryson say about regional accents in America in the 1990s in "Dying Accents"?

9. Why does Bryson find going to a restaurant in the United States so difficult, as expressed in "What's Cooking"? How does he address the issue of the many varieties of food out there?

10. In "How to Have Fun at Home,"which household conveniences are high on Bill's approval list? Why?

(see the answer keys)

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