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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. While the class is writing in their journals, what does Hope notice about Tamaya?

2. What does SunRay Farms intend their product to replace?

3. When her mother first suggests it, why does Tamaya not want to go to the doctor in the morning?

4. What does Tamaya realize about her hands at the end of Chapter 7?

5. What causes Tamaya to scream and fall down in the woods?

Short Essay Questions

1. When he is lying awake on the night after Chad's attack, what two possible endings does Marshall imagine for a scenario where he tries to defend Tamaya from Chad?

2. Describe the changes that occur in Tamaya's rash overnight in Chapter 12.

3. What do the descriptions of the outside and inside of Tamaya's house communicate about her home?

4. What does Ms. Filbert's balloon demonstration show about her as a teacher?

5. How do the stories that Chad tells help to show what kind of a person he is?

6. What does Tamaya rub in Chad's face, and how does Chad react?

7. What irony does Jonathan Fitzman see in the senators' questions about the ergonyms escaping into the environment?

8. What does Tamaya's response to the balloon writing prompt demonstrate about her as a person?

9. What are some of the odd habits that Jonathan Fitzman has?

10. When he is lying away on the night after Chad's attack, what does Marshall decide is his best hope for a final ending to the situation with Chad?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What message about courage does Fuzzy Mud convey? How do various characters display--or fail to display--the kind of courage this book is talking about? What are the consequences of these choices? Do any characters grow and change in their ability to display courage? What relationship is there between the messages the text sends about courage and the two words on the Woodridge uniform? Does the text propose that people who strongly believe in virtue will automatically have courage, or are these two separate goals that people need to work toward? Write an essay in which you make and defend a claim about how the text defines courage and how characterization, plot, and textual details work together to support this definition.

Essay Topic 2

What message is conveyed through the contrast in settings in this text? Choose two settings and write an essay that compares and contrasts them and then makes a claim about what ideas are being transmitted by these similarities and differences. As you structure this essay, think about whether you want to write all about one setting and then all about the other, or whether you want to discuss similarities in one part of the essay and differences in a separate part of the essay. In either case, end your essay with a paragraph that shows what point Sachar is trying to make by creating these two separate settings. Support your ideas with evidence drawn from throughout the text, and remember that if you use quoted evidence, this should be cited in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

What kind of a person is Marshall? What elements of direct and indirect characterization convey this to the reader? How does Sachar gradually shift the reader's understanding of this character throughout the course of the book? Write an essay that makes a claim about the impression that is created by the reader's first introduction to Marshall, in Chapters 1-3, and how this impression changes beginning with Chapter 4. Offer evidence to support your observations that is drawn from both direct and indirect sources of characterization throughout the book.

(see the answer keys)

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