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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 has Ms. Hussey received?

2. What does Mrs. Sharpe believe about the woman in Petra's dreams?

3. What location at the school do Calder and Petra think is more interesting than King Hall?

4. Where does Calder purposely get left behind?

5. What does Calder use as an way to look for large storage spaces?

Short Essay Questions

1. What hypothetical question does Ms. Hussey ask the Calder and Petra and what is their response?

2. What happens when Petra enters her kitchen the next morning?

3. How do Petra and Calder manage to have access to some of the hidden areas of the school?

4. How is Ms. Hussey's class metamorphosing?

5. What do Calder and Petra wonder as they sit in Gracie Hall?

6. Who do Petra and Calder see on their way to school and what does she give them?

7. What do Petra and Calder learn on the evening news?

8. Why is Petra nervous in Delia Dell Hall?

9. Why do Petra and Calder run out of Delia Dell Hall and what do they decide to do?

10. What happens when the thief's letter appears in newspapers around the world?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Titles often play a vital role in making a person decide to read a particular book. Discuss the following:

1. Fully explain why you think "Chasing Vermeer" is titled as such. Do you think it is the best title for the book? Why or why not? Can you think of a better title? Why would you choose it?

2. How important is a title in influencing you to consider reading a book? Explain your answer.

3. Do you think a title needs to have direct relevance to a book's content? Explain your answer.

4. Have you ever read a book that when you finished, you do not understand the relevance of the title? Does it discourage you from "trusting" that particular author again?

Essay Topic 2

Sometimes a book has more of a character-driven plot rather than action driven, and sometimes it is the other way. Some books seem to balance the two. Discuss the following:

1. What do you think it means to say that a plot is character driven? Action driven?

2. How do you think a plot differs if it is character driven versus action driven?

3. Which type of plot do you find more interesting? Why?

4. Do you think it is possible to have a plot where action and character development share equal time? Why or why not.

5. What type of plot do you think "Chasing Vermeer" is? Explain your response.

Essay Topic 3

Lo! is a book full of unexplained events. The clippings in this book come from newspapers from all over the world and include hundreds of stories of bizarre events. The majority of these events are of living animals falling out of the sky. Charles Fort, the author of the book, believes that people take what happens around them and then make these often odd and unlikely events fit into something they can understand, rather than taking what actually happens and trying to figure out why it has happened.

1. Do you think a bizarre event can always be explained by science, even if the knowledge is not available in the present time? Why or why not? Use examples from "Chasing Vermeer" and your own life to support your answer.

2. Making something you see into something your mind understands or expects is a common phenomenon. For example, we might see "waht" but read "what". Discuss an incident in "Chasing Vermeer" in which one of the characters saw an event and decided to interpret that event based on what the character wanted to find or know. Use examples from "Chasing Vermeer" and your own life to support your answer.

3. Explain, in depth, how reading Lo! changed Petra and Calder's perception of the world. Use examples from "Chasing Vermeer" and your own life to support your answer.

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