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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 was the narrator's army radar company?

2. What does the narrator consider the place he is stranded?

3. In what state does the narrator live?

4. The narrator and his friends have a contest of eating _____________ laxatives.

5. When does Ernie re-join his company after getting off the train?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does New Jersey symbolize American culture for the narrator?

2. Why does the book never mention the narrator's wartime experiences?

3. How did the narrator conquer the tailgater just by using his mental prowess?

4. What are the rules of the contest Umbaugh suggested?

5. What does the forming of clans among New Jerseyites mean?

6. What happened to Big Al during the contest and what does the narrator realize about Umbaugh's actions years later?

7. Who is Ernie and what happened to him during the narrator's story of KP duty?

8. What was the narrator able to tell about the tailgater following him yesterday?

9. Why was the narrator underwhelmed by his summer camp experience?

10. How did the narrator prepare for camp and by what name will his group be called once they get there?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why did Shepherd choose to use the first person narrator perspective for the stories? What does this point of view entail? What do you know about the characters and the plot lines that you would not know from a different point of view? What do you NOT know about the characters and plot lines based on this point of view?

Essay Topic 2

Humor takes on an almost human persona in this story. What is this literary technique called? Cite examples that support this position.

Essay Topic 3

Shepherd wrote most of these stories with the theme of disappointment. Choose three situations from any of the stories and explain the disappointment in each. How did the narrator maintain any hope given the disappointments he always seemed to experience?

(see the answer keys)

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