View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What government agency does Dr. Peter Smythe work for?

2. What possible ergonym mutation are the senators worried about?

3. When Mrs. Thaxton asks Marshall if he knows where Tamaya is, what is his first thought?

4. What does Marshall see that suddenly changes his attitude and makes him worried that something serious is happening?

5. While she is in the woods, what does Tamaya realize about the fuzzy mud?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Tamaya end up getting completely stuck in the fuzzy mud?

2. When they are in the woods together, what does Chad reveal is behind his anger toward Marshall?

3. What finally causes Marshall to stand up to Chad, and how does this moment contradict Marshall's worst fears about himself?

4. How does Chad feel that he is different from his siblings and from the other Woodridge students?

5. Why does no one realize that Marshall is missing when he goes into the woods to look for Tamaya?

6. When Marshall is on the basketball court at lunch, what is ironic about his behavior toward Tamaya?

7. When Chad tells Tamaya and Marshall about being up in the trees, what does Tamaya think sounds so nice about it, and why?

8. When Tamaya confronts Marshall on the basketball court, what makes it clear that the school nurse's treatment is not helping Tamaya's rash?

9. How does Tamaya's parents' divorce make her feel as if she is always missing something?

10. What steps do Marshall and Tamaya take to warn the search party about the mud?

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

How does Sachar use both flashback and flash-forward in this narrative? What is the difference between these techniques and the purposes they serve in this story? What similar purposes do they serve? Write an essay that analyzes how and why Sachar uses both techniques. Support your arguments with evidence drawn from throughout the book. If you use quoted evidence, remember to cite it in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

How do the realistic setting, characters, and plot of Fuzzy Mud all interact to keep the reader engaged in the story? Why does it matter that the story is set in ordinary places like a school, the woods, and students' homes? How do the thoughts and feelings of the ordinary children in this story help the reader bond with them? How does this bond increase the reader's engagement? In what ways is the plot realistic, and why does it matter that these things could really happen? Write an essay that uses evidence drawn from plot, characterization, and setting to show the many ways in which Fuzzy Mud is realistic and how Sachar's use of realism keeps the reader engaged.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,205 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample