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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. Why does Hope call Tamaya a "Goody Two-shoes" (5)?

2. What is emphasized in the description of the inside of Tamaya's house?

3. Who are Daniela and Eric?

4. How does Tamaya's school uniform usually make her feel?

5. When Marshall accuses Tamaya of "pokeying" on page 21, what is he saying she is doing?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. 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?

3. What does Tamaya and her mother's nighttime routine communicate about their relationship?

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

5. 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?

6. What advice of Ms. Filbert's does Tamaya think about as she is about to go into the woods, and why does she think about it?

7. Describe the setting of SunRay Farm.

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

9. When other students speak up for Marshall during Mrs. Thaxton's questioning, what does this reveal about the situation with Chad turning everyone against Marshall?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When you began reading this novel, you made a guess about whether Tamaya would be a static or dynamic character. What kind of a person is she at the beginning of this book? How do you know? What kind of a person is she at the end? How do you know? Does this make her a static or a dynamic character? After you have an answer to these questions, write an essay that makes a claim about whether Tamaya is a static or dynamic character and that uses evidence from the beginning, middle, and end of the text to support your claim. Remember that if you use quoted evidence, this should be cited in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Think about the illustration in the outer, upper corner of each page where a new chapter begins. When readers see the first illustration, do they have any way to know what it is? Is it easy to overlook? How is this similar to the equations and Tamaya's rash? What happens to the illustration as the book progresses? Think about not just the number of organisms in the Petri dish but the amount of attention they command as they increase in number. What does this have to do with the equations and Tamaya's rash? Eventually, the organisms in the illustration actually escape their dish and begin to spill down the margins of the page. What point is being made in these illustrations? What does this have to do with the equations and Tamaya's rash? Write an essay in which you demonstrate how these illustrations convey similar ideas to the ideas conveyed by the equations and Tamaya's rash. 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 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.

(see the answer keys)

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