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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 do Caputo and his men discover as they pursue the wounded VC?

2. What casualties are suffered during the next two days?

3. Why is it difficult to round up the platoon?

4. What does Caputo speculate about in regard to mines remaining in an area where the RPs are supposed to have cleared them?

5. When the Vietnamese children try to sell bottles of Coke, why do the men refuse them?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the advantage on Hill 268 where Caputo's company is poistioned?

2. What is it like for Caputo as they march back through Giao-Tri?

3. Why does he say he fears being an unsat or a marginal?

4. What is the news that makes Caputo sorry he is not there instead of being in Okinawa?

5. What really causes the aloofness to Caputo at the base camp?

6. Why do the men continually have to be reminded to keep five paces between them and the next man?

7. What is the first month like after the battalion reaches Vietnam?

8. How does the platoon receive Caputo's first lecture?

9. Describe the Annamese Cordillera.

10. How do Caputo and his 40-odd men get transported to the war zone?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discomfort is never pleasant. Using the book, write about some of the worst situations in terms of comfort and express your opinion about how well you would deal with them. Some examples you might use are the leeches, immersion foot, sleeping in several inches of water in a foxhole, trying to sleep with large artillery going off all night, having only C Rations to eat, etc.

Essay Topic 2

Write a paper on the need of many men to prove their manhood. Express your opinion as to why this is something Caputo mentions several times in the book. Besides war, what are ways some men choose to prove to themselves that they are real men? Express your opinion as to whether such behavior is necessary.

Essay Topic 3

Hatred is mentioned several times in the book. It often takes over when circumstances are frustrating and there appears to be nothing anyone can do about it. Write how the Marines in Vietnam often felt this way when they knew more about what was going on than the men safely back at HQ who were planning the moves of the war.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 781 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample