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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. Whose boot comes floating to the surface of the water?

2. How does Dru see the crowd at the Nail waiting for the jump?

3. What does Dru say about Scooter and Elisa jumping the Nail together again?

4. What does Dru's father do for a living?

5. What does Dru tell Elisa when Elisa gets ready to leave the house?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when Dru shows Elisa the mangled boot?

2. What has Dru just finished, and what is she thinking about as she walks her dog looking at houses?

3. Who drives Dru and MIke back to Mike's car and what is Diane like?

4. Why is Dru different from the other teenagers at the Nail, what rumor does one teen say to Dru?

5. Whose house does Dru pass and what does she think when she passes it?

6. What does Scooter do while he is waiting for Elisa, what does Dru ask Elisa about Scooter's behavior and what is Elisa's response?

7. Who does Dru run into while walking her dog and what does the person ask her and say to her?

8. What happens when Scooter and Elisa jump and immediately after?

9. What does Scooter ask Mike and Dru to do, why does he ask them and what does Dru think of Scooter jumping?

10. How does Dru feel towards Scooter after Elisa tells Dru about the drowned girl and what does Elisa say to her?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Dru discusses the idea of feeling invisible. She feels this way until Mike and she start dating. This represents the universal teenage feeling of being invisible. It is a theme often seen in books about adolescence. For Dru, it is a real feeling and her encounter with Diane only exacerbates the feeling to a deeper level.

1. Discuss a time you or someone you know felt invisible. How did it compare to Dru's feelings? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Discuss, in depth, why Dru's meeting with Diane might have made her feel more invisible or insecure. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Dating MIke is an external event which has made Dru feel, and possibly be, more acceptable to others in her school. Discuss some of the internal values Dru could strengthen within herself which could produce the same effect. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the following:

1. Who is/are the protagonists of the story and why?

2. Who is/are the antagonists of the story and why?

3. Which 3 secondary characters have the greatest impact on the plot?

4. Are any of the characters dispensable and which ones? Why or why not?

5. Do you think this is a character-driven plot or an action-driven plot? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

Dru represents a mother figure. The other teenagers are eager to see Elisa and Scooter jump, but it tears Dru apart. She seems to take a motherly role with Elisa because she feels her influence would have stopped her best friend from jumping. Being a mother figure causes Dru not to fit in with the group. She is not rich or beautiful, but more importantly, she looks at the teenagers as people to whom she cannot relate. Thus, she separates herself from her own age group.

1. Dru is very intelligent having received a full scholarship to a prestigious university. Discuss how her intelligence may have contributed to her being a mother figure to some of the teenagers in "Jumping the Nail". Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Why do you think Dru being a mother figure, with the maturity that implies, may interfere with Dru fitting in well with Dru and her peers? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Dru is apparently not only smart, but mature, and these two qualities make her feel like she does not fit in and she has a tendency to separate herself from her own age group. What are ways in which you believe Dru could feel more relaxed and compatible with her peers? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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