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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 does Eddie do?

2. What reason does Becky give for breaking up with the narrator?

3. What does Harlequin's costume look like?

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

5. Whom does Disease Maker's Croup affect?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the 'problem of Susan'?

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

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

4. Do the machines feel emotion?

5. In what ways is 'In The End' a reversal of the creation story in Genesis?

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

7. How does Missy get the better of Harlequin?

8. Why are the machines interested in the narrator?

9. Is the professor the same person as Susan from the Narnia books?

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

Discuss characterization in two of the stories or poems in the collection. How has the author communicated what the characters are like, and how does he create sympathy for them? Do the characters act consistently? Do they seem like real people?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the theme of reality and fiction in these stories and poems. What are the differences between real life and stories? Why does the author keep returning to this theme?

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.

(see the answer keys)

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