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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 Miss Fern and Miss Roberta do to the Green Machine?

2. What does Mrs. Bentley feel was stolen away by the children not believing that she was once young and pretty?

3. How fast does the Green machine travel?

4. In what year does this novel begin?

5. What does the Happiness Machine actually result in?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the Green Machine offer to Miss Fern and Miss Roberta that is suddenly taken away after the accident?

2. Describe how Douglas feels as he completes the task for his grandfather and describe what the tasks are.

3. Why does Douglas' Grandfather become so upset at the idea of his neighbor replacing his grass with some that does not grow as fast?

4. What can be said that Leo has tampered with when he follows through on building the Happiness Machine?

5. How does Leo rationalize to a displeased Lena that the Happiness Machine is a necessity?

6. What do Douglas and his father experience very differently and provide one example of how they see the same event quite differently?

7. In what ways was the fact that change is difficult for children reinforced in this section of the novel?

8. What does the beating of the rugs symbolize to Douglas and Tom both?

9. What brings Douglas comfort after so many things that he loves have all changed and ended at once?

10. How does Helen Bentley attempt to prove to the children that she was indeed once a child?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What powerful recognition does Douglas come to at the end of the novel? How is this recognition important? What does it represent in his life?

Essay Topic 2

How do characters throughout the novel use their imagination to make themselves happier? Use specific examples from the novel to support your answers. Do you believe this is a healthy way to live? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Clara and Elmira could be described as representing good and evil. Would you agree with this description? Why or why not?

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This section contains 654 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample