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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. What was the routine when Joanie visited Hamper's house?
(a) They would feed his siblings and drop acid.
(b) They would ignore his siblings and make love in the living room.
(c) They would feed his siblings and do homework.
(d) They would feed his siblings and make love in the living room.

2. Why did Joanie and Hamper get married when she became pregnant?
(a) Hamper wanted to escape his mother's home.
(b) They were finally eighteen and able to make their own decisions.
(c) They loved each other.
(d) Abortion and adoption were unheard-of in their religious circle.

3. When a would-be employee arrived late and was rejected, what did he do?
(a) Yelled at the supervisor.
(b) Cursed the men who had arrived on time.
(c) Left in silence.
(d) Cried.

4. Why did Hamper and Mike come to hate their fathers?
(a) Their fathers were shop-rats.
(b) Their fathers were drunkards.
(c) Their fathers were unreliable.
(d) Their fathers were stuck in a rut.

5. Why did Hamper's dad often denounce African-Americans?
(a) He had an on-going feud with an African-American man at work.
(b) He wanted to deflect his guilt onto someone else.
(c) He was genuinely racist.
(d) He wanted to raise his children to be white supremacists.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did the supervisors add another task to Hamper and Dale's job?

2. What was the job Hamper first wanted to have?

3. How much time was required for an employee to secure his job at GM?

4. How had Hamper imagined his father's work before he saw it?

5. What was Hamper's first impression of the crew of men he was called in with the first day?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Hamper's stories about life after high school reveal the time period in which they were written? What clues did he give by telling how much things cost?

2. What pattern emerged in junior-high that led Hamper to consider the life of a shop-rat? How did he begin to identify with his family who had worked in the factory?

3. What stories does Hamper tell about Dan-O? What do these stories add to the reader's impression of the factory?

4. Why is Hamper's description of Flint, Michigan, at the beginning of Chapter 2, a powerful one?

5. What kind of person was Joanie? Use Hamper's references to her to create a character description.

6. Hamper said that Same-O was quite likely the only genius he ever met at the General Motors factory (pg 66). Why did he say this?

7. What did Hamper say about his younger siblings? How did this give the reader another glimpse of family life?

8. What promises did the Plant Manager make during the factory meeting? How did Hamper's retelling of the speech change its tone?

9. How did Hamper justify his drinking at work? What was his opinion about the people who disapproved of factory workers drinking at work, and is this opinion fair?

10. What religious background did Hamper have during his childhood? How did religion shape his move into adulthood?

(see the answer keys)

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