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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 is the second stage of the disease?

2. What is the professor's book about?

3. What does the narrator mix into the plasticine as he creates his model?

4. In Greta's dream, what does Aslan do to Susan and Lucy?

5. How do the boys know Alison?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why are the machines interested in the narrator?

2. Based on the instructions given in the poem 'Instructions,' what kind of morals are needed to survive fairyland?

3. Are the boys at the party in any danger?

4. How does the father in 'Locks' interpret the story differently from his two-year-old child?

5. Why does Triolet say that she is a poem?

6. Based on the ideas explored in 'Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot' why do you think vampire stories are so popular?

7. What do you think happened to Becky at the end of the story?

8. Why do you think Eddie Barrow lets himself be eaten in 'Feeders and Eaters'? Does he have a choice?

9. Based on this story, how do you think the author feels about the problem of Susan?

10. What is the 'problem of Susan'?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the author's use of metaphor and symbolism in two stories or poems of your choice from the collection.

Essay Topic 2

What kinds of fragile things can be found in the stories and poems in this collection? What do they symbolize or represent? Why are they fragile, and how has the author communicated this sense of fragility?

Essay Topic 3

How many of the stories and poems in this collection are horror stories? Why do you consider them to be horror stories? How has the author used language, structure, pace, and symbolism to create a scary or creepy atmosphere? Are these conventional horror stories or something a bit different?

(see the answer keys)

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