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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. How does Jeremy feel about his father's request about future jobs?

2. How old was Jeremy when his mother died?

3. What does Jeremy see in the scene from, "She's All That" in Part One?

4. How is Lisa farmhouse described by Jeremy upon his first visit, at the end of Part One, Chapter 7?

5. In Part One, Chapter 11, what is the name of the movie that Jeremy and Steve thinks portrays family farms in an inaccurate way?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Sarah Jane go to the farmhouse in Collins after viewing the videos? How does Sarah Jane know how to locate the farmhouse?

2. What is an alternate version to how Jeremy's life unfolds if he does not pursue investigating the added scenes to the videos?

3. How does Steve's date go with Shauna Kinzer? How does Jeremy feel about this new relationship?

4. What is puzzling about the fact that Jeremy's co-worker, Ezra, works at Video Hut?

5. In Steve's final paragraph in his journal, how is it both tender and full of fear?

6. In Part One, Chapter 11, what is unusual and scary to Steve about the added scene in "Blue Chips?"

7. How does Jeremy feel about holiday conversations as described in Part One, Chapter 2?

8. What metaphor does the narrator make about snakes in Part One, Chapter 10? How does this metaphor apply to greater themes in the novel?

9. What is the overall theme of the Quote that precedes the novel?

10. In Part One, Chapter 7, the narrator provides reasons for why a person would live in a farmhouse. How does this description of setting connect to a greater theme?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Pages 100-101 document a religious tract given to Irene while outside the Old Market. The message relates directly to Irene's situation, as well as how her life possibly evolves in the future. What associations can be made from the tract and Irene's own life? How does the tract signify what is to come later in the novel?

Essay Topic 2

In Part Two, Chapter 4, the pastor, Michael Christopher dispenses a metaphorical association between the literal and figurative nature of a Bible verse. This incident happens upon Irene's first visit to this new church. Christopher states, "There's a reason why Luke wants us to see this worker in the field, why Matthew says you don't go back for your clothes. It's not just that God doesn't mind if you're dirty...The dirt's a sign" (116-117). How is "being dirty" a good thing for human nature? What does Christopher expect from his congregation according to this elucidation? How does the quote affect the growth and conclusion of Irene's character?

Essay Topic 3

At the end of Part One, Chapter 9, Jeremy's father, Steve, asks Jeremy if it is okay that Steve is dating again. Jeremy responds that it is fine, because Linda, his mother, would want Steve to be happy. Then, Jeremy wrestles with his own relationship with his father and what Jeremy can do to make his father comfortable. How does Jeremy feel about living with his father? How do Jeremy's musings about this relationship reflect a greater theme in the novel that reflects the hesitant and uncertain nature of events and characters' decisions?

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