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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 impresses Debbie about the student with the locker next to hers?

2. What is wrong with Mrs. Bruning's car?

3. Where do Peter and his parents live?

4. What does Debbie's great aunt say Debbie's cousin's job is?

5. What does Hector's mother make for which some people might want the recipe?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when Debbie comes to Mrs. Bruning's house on Saturday immediately after Mrs. Bruning awakens?

2. What does Debbie think of Dan Persik?

3. Where does Hector find Meadow, and why is he embarrassed?

4. What book is Debbie reading in Chapter 22 and what does she think about the book and her life compared to the life of the protagonist in the book?

5. What has Debbie convinced her mother of, and what does she find in her mother's mementos box?

6. Who is at the Tastee Freez when the guitar lesson group arrives there and how does Hector feel about the class going to the Tastee Freez?

7. What is Hector thinking when he walks the sidewalk after a light rain?

8. What does Peter call his grandmother and why is he at her house?

9. With what is Lenny helping his father in Chapter 16, and what is Debbie doing when she overhears them?

10. How do both Hector's and Mrs. Bruning's hairstyles change in Chapter 20?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

1. What is foreshadowing? How many incidences of foreshadowing are in "Criss Cross"? How does foreshadowing contribute to a book's suspense?

2. Discuss an example of foreshadow in Criss Cross including why you believe it is foreshadow. Include examples from the book and your own life to illustrate your answer.

3. How do you think most people react to uncertainty in their lives? Use examples from "Criss Cross" and your own live to support your opinion.

Essay Topic 2

Many novels, and perhaps a majority, of novels ends on a happy note. Discuss the following:

1. Why do you think many (most?) people want what they perceive as a happy or good ending to a novel? Explain your opinion. Do you? Why or why not?

2. What are three reasons to read fiction? Discuss each one in light of "Criss Cross" and whether or not it fulfills all three, two or one of the reasons you mention. Give examples as to why "Criss Cross" is or is not successful in fulfilling the reasons you discuss.

3. Do you think reading solely for entertainment is as good a reason to read as any other? Why or why not? Can any work of fiction or non-fiction, no matter how poorly written, enlighten, teach, stimulate thought? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss one of the following:

1. Trace and analyze the theme of growth in "Criss Cross". Consider the following questions as you write: What characters are most concerned with growth? Why? What are some symbols of growth? Symbols of rigidity? What characters seem rigid?

2. Trace and analyze the theme of knowing oneself in "Criss Cross". Which characters struggle with this issue? Why? Which characters seem to possess courage? Why?

3. Trace and analyze the theme of parents and teenagers in "Criss Cross". Consider the silence between Debbie and her mother and Lenny and his father working together.

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