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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 nickname does the inventor of the product made by SunRay Farms use for his invention?

2. What does Tamaya do when she gets home that makes her feel "the way a murderer felt after he succeeded in destroying all the evidence" (42)?

3. When Marshall gets in trouble, what does he say that makes his parents even angrier at him?

4. What seems to be Marc Hubbard's main objection to the product that SunRay Farms makes?

5. Who is the author of Fuzzy Mud?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why has Chad come to Woodridge Academy?

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

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

4. What offer does Tamaya make to Marshall on their walk to school in Chapter 12, and why does she think his response is not very honest?

5. When Ms. Filbert was assigning the reports about presidents, how did her behavior contradict her words?

6. What are some of the consequences Marshall suffers at school because of Chad's bullying?

7. Why does Marshall blame his parents for his problems with Chad?

8. How does knowing about Chad's threats make Chapter 5 more tense and suspenseful for the reader?

9. 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?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

What message does this novel convey about choosing the easy way out of a dilemma instead of choosing to do what is right, even if it is hard to do? How does this question relate to people in the book who do not seem to understand their own intentions or why they make the choices they make? How does this relate to the idea of a "Hobson's choice"? How does it relate to Woodridge Academy's emphasis on virtue and valor? Write an essay that takes and defends a position about what Fuzzy Mud communicates about making ethical choices. Support your claims with evidence drawn from throughout the text. If you use quoted evidence, remember to cite it in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

Now that you have finished the whole book, think back to the ideas you had about what this book is trying to say about bullies and bullying. What forms does this behavior take in the book? What are the causes of the behavior? Do people always understand when they are being bullies? How does this relate to the book's ideas about what makes people "good" or "bad"? What are the consequences of bullying to both bullies and their targets? How do these consequences help the reader understand the book's messages about bullying? Write an essay in which you make and defend a claim about the message about bullying that Sachar is sending in Fuzzy Mud. Support your arguments with evidence drawn from throughout the book. If you use quoted evidence, remember to cite it in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

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