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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 decision does the narrator make?

2. What now happens to Missy and Harlequin?

3. What does Eddie do?

4. In 'Temperance' what does the vampire say Chinese vampires drink instead of blood?

5. In 'The Star,' where does the vampire say that vampires came from originally?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Missy get the better of Harlequin?

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

3. What is the 'problem of Susan'?

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

5. What might the plasticine gargoyle symbolize?

6. Do you think Miss Corvier is supernatural or a normal but disturbed human?

7. In 'The Day the Saucer's Came' why does the person in the poem not notice such incredible events?

8. Why does the father in 'Locks' feel that we owe it to ourselves to tell each other stories?

9. Why does Becky break up with the narrator?

10. What makes it clear that the author of 'Disease Maker's Croup' is suffering from the disease himself?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the meaning of the playhouse in the story 'Closing Time?' Is it evil? Does it represent or symbolize anything?

Essay Topic 2

What is the 'Problem of Susan'? How does the author attempt to address it? Do you think he has succeeded? What do you think the author's opinion of the Problem of Susan is? What is your opinion and why?

Essay Topic 3

What is the purpose and worth of fiction? Why are stories important? Discuss how the author deals with these questions in his stories and poems.

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