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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. In an excerpt from Addict in the Family, its author states that addicts inevitably take what action with respect to their parents' past regrets?

2. Part V begins with an excerpt of the script from what film?

3. Nic admits to his father that the drug scenes from what movie make him want to get high?

4. What is NOT a piece of evidence that tells the author and his wife that Nic has broken into the family home?

5. Studies have shown that what elements "change an addict's vital signs" (206)?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the symbolism of Nic's note to Jasper?

2. What distinction does Sheff make between useful guilt and guilt that is not useful?

3. What new hobby does Nic take up around the time when David regains his memory after surviving a cerebral hemorrhage?

4. How late is Nic when he sets a lunch date with his father at the restaurant Steps of Rome?

5. What is the main element of twelve-step recovery programs that Nic rejects?

6. What are the definitions of priming and cuing, behaviors that can lead to relapse?

7. What major medical emergency befalls David Sheff just before Nic's eighteenth birthday?

8. Discuss Sheff's use of medical diction in order to depict the theme of family bonds.

9. What distinction does Sheff make between blame and accountability?

10. For what purpose does Sheff use the shark and the cormorant simile?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is Sheff's message regarding the difference between loving behavior, and enabling or co-dependent behavior, and how does he get this message across to the reader?

Essay Topic 2

What is the David Sheff's message regarding the shift in worldview that needs to occur within United States government with regard to the addiction crisis?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the author's use of Aristotle's appeals within David Sheff's memoir Beautiful Boy. How does the author use each of the three appeals to persuade the reader of argumentative points central to the tenets of the work?

(see the answer keys)

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