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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 Tamaya almost laugh when she offers Chad her peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

2. Why does Tamaya have to jump over the gully?

3. What does Chad tell Tamaya he has been thinking about while he has been lost in the woods?

4. Why does Marshall struggle to get Tamaya out of the gully?

5. What is the name of the dog that licks Tamaya when the searchers find her, Marshall, and Chad?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Marshall's behavior in Mrs. Thaxton's office contradict the decision he makes right before he goes in?

2. What do all of the rumors about Chad's disappearance show about both Chad and the other students at Woodridge Academy?

3. How does Chad answer Tamaya's question about why he acts the way he does?

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

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

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

7. By the time Marshall is found by the searchers, which items of clothing is he missing, and why?

8. How do the kids discover that Tamaya has lost her vision?

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

10. What happens when Mr. Walsh shows up at Woodridge to pick up Marshall?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Think again about the action and inaction of Tamaya and Marshall when Chad disappears. Are there other characters in this story who know that something bad is happening and either step up to try to help or stand back and try to ignore the problem? Is the story trying to say that one of these choices is morally better than the other? Is the story conveying something about how personality and circumstance both influence whether we make "good" or "bad" moral choices? Write an essay that looks at Tamaya, Marshall, and at least two other characters faced with the choice between standing up for what is right and ignoring the problem. In your essay, make and defend a claim about what message the book is trying to send about situations like this. 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 does Sachar use chapter titles to convey information? How does he use them to convey ideas? How does he use them to create anticipation and tension? Write an essay that explains the various purposes of the chapter titles that Sachar has chosen in Fuzzy Mud. Support your ideas with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from throughout the text, and be sure to cite quoted evidence in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

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