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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. Howie believes some brain cells need to die in order to gain _______.

2. What car company does Howie consider to do a good job with knobs?

3. Where does Howie have a distinct memory of riding an escalator with his mom?

4. What show does Howie order a transcript from because he disagreed with one of the interviewees?

5. Howie's fifth major advance has to do with _____.

Short Essay Questions

1. How does "The Mezzanine" begin?

2. What does Howie mean by "vibratiuncles of comparison"?

3. How does Howie describe the experience of opening a package of shirts from the dry cleaners?

4. Why has Howie mostly given up drinking milk?

5. What observations does Howie make about straws while he was at Papa Gino's?

6. What is Howie's feeling about ice cube trays?

7. How does Howie celebrate what he considers to be the realization that he is an adult?

8. What are Howie's thoughts on shopping bags?

9. Howie does Howie's shoelace break?

10. What were the "systems of local transport" that Howie liked as a child?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What are some of the trivialities, interconnections with other people and thoughts outside of its main subject, tangents, abrupt thoughts that must not be lost and so on that the author illustrates in the footnotes? What greater truth is contained in these?

Essay Topic 2

Has Baker achieved a literary work of profound complexity or is "The Mezzanine" a trivial novel, completely lacking in plot? Explain your view based on evidence in the novel.

Essay Topic 3

What larger point about society is Howie making in his comparison of CVS and Crate and Barrel? How does this apply to overall themes in the novel?

(see the answer keys)

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