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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 ridiculous rumor about Chad does Marshall pretend to believe as an excuse for not telling Mrs. Thaxton the truth?

2. When the school is put on lockdown, where is Marshall?

3. What lie does Marshall tell himself about why he did not tell Mrs. Thaxton the truth?

4. Where does Mrs. Dhilwaddi go after Mrs, Thaxton calls her to tell her Tamaya is missing?

5. Why do Tamaya and Chad hold a long stick between them as they head back toward the school?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is ironic about Chad's threat to use the stick to hit Tamaya?

3. What makes Mrs. Thaxton feel so guilty about Tamaya's disappearance?

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

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

6. When they are in the woods together, what does Tamaya learn about Chad's story about the hermit?

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

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

9. How does Tamaya end up getting more fuzzy mud on her, and how does her response show her common sense?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

You have already spent some time thinking about the symbolism of the Woodridge Academy sweaters. But there are several other symbols that are important in the same section of the text. Think about the role that food plays in this section, for instance, or the importance of the trees Chad climbs. Choose another symbol from the part of the story where Tamaya goes into the woods to rescue Chad and Marshall ends up rescuing both Tamaya and Chad (Chapters 21-31). Write an essay that describes the symbol and then shows how this symbol is developed throughout this section of text. Make sure that your essay offers a clear theory about what the symbol conveys, and support your ideas with evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 3

Tamaya's and Marshall's parents clearly love them, but they cannot always make everything easy for their children. How is this different from Chad's situation? What details from the novel show that Tamaya and Marshall get more love and attention at home than Chad does? What is Chad's theory about why his parents seem to reject him? Is the novel trying to get the reader on Chad's side or on the parents' side? How do you know? What impact does this rejection have on Chad? Write an essay in which you take and defend a position about what the most important difference is between the way Chad's parents treat him and the way Tamaya's and Marshall's parents treat them. Show how this difference impacts Chad and what message about parenting is being conveyed. Support your claims with evidence drawn from throughout the text. If you use quoted evidence, remember to cite it in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

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