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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. What does the D. in Nyodene D. stand for?

2. From where did Mr. Gray operate his "business"?

3. Who/what calls the event a "feathery plume"?

4. When Jack wakes up in the middle of the night in Chapter 33, which of his children is staring at him?

5. Which medical issue is Jack's doctor concerned with?

Short Essay Questions

1. What causes the family to evacuate, eventually? What is the thing that convinces them?

2. When Murray and Jack discuss the weird feelings they have about Howard, what are some of the things they mention that just do not feel right?

3. Which particular kind of people does Jack notice watching the insane asylum burn down, when he and Heinrich go to watch?

4. When Jack asks Babette for Mr. Gray's real name, why does she refuse to tell him?

5. When the family does not want to cook, where do they go and what do they eat?

6. How did Jack act during his appointment with Dr. Chakravarty?

7. According to Heinrich, toxic spills are not "the real issue." What does he tell his sisters and parents they should be worried of?

8. What happened to Orest's quest to break the world record? What happens when he tries to do it?

9. Whom does Jack give the sample of Dylar to, and why?

10. As Jack is going faithfully to his German lessons, what is he is practicing?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Although many of the characters are unusual, Heinrich is one of the stranger characters. As a fourteen year old with a receding hairline, is he a good representation of the average American teenager? What are the things about Heinrich that you recognize in your peers and yourself? What things about him are different? Would you want to be friends with him, why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast Jack's wives. Write an essay that describes Dana, Janet, Tweedy and Babette in turn, and explains the ways in which they are similar or different. Why did Jack want to marry them? What caused conflicts in their marriages? What does this show readers about Jack?

Essay Topic 3

Wilder, Jack and Babette's youngest child, is non-verbal in a family of fast-talking, bright and pretty evasive/elliptical conversationalists. Write an analytical essay that explains Wilder's function in the narrative. Be sure to offer an explanation of how Wilder affects the plot, characterization, mood, etc.

(see the answer keys)

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