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. In "A Speech to the Graduates," what advice is Sedaris defending with his example of a grandmother who gives a grandchild a graduation gift?

2. In "A Speech to the Graduates," what reason does Sedaris offer for why the graduates should follow his advice?

3. Where does Sedaris see Olivier working when Oliver is about 20 years old?

4. Which word best captures Sedaris's depiction of Eastern European decor in "To Serbia with Love"?

5. In "Highfalutin," where have Sedaris and Hugh moved just before the lunch with Amy takes place?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "Themes and Variations," what kinds of people does Sedaris resist giving money to?

2. In "Hurricane Season," how does Sedaris depict Hugh's attention to detail as a benefit of their relationship?

3. In "Themes and Variations," what does Sedaris discover about women, and how does he discover it?

4. In "Active Shooter," how does Lisa explain to the instructor and to Sedaris her desire to take a gun-safety course?

5. In "Father Time," how does Sedaris contrast his attentiveness to his father with that of his siblings?

6. In "Hurricane Season," what type of art does Hugh hang in the rental house, and how does Sedaris characterize a recent tenant's reaction to this art?

7. In "Highfalutin," how does Sedaris say his adult experience in front of cameras reflects his role in the childhood game he played with Amy?

8. In "Highfalutin," what two things does Amy do while she and Sedaris are shopping that he finds funny but also mortifying?

9. In "Unbuttoned," how does Sedaris contrast his feelings about his own medical procedure with his father's behavior?

10. In "Unbuttoned," what irony does Sedaris recognize when Gretchen asks him to write Lou's obituary?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In "Pussytoes," Sedaris shares his ideas about how his and his siblings' shared past impacts them in the present. He also wonders how his father's death might affect their relationship in the future. But "Pussytoes" is not the only essay in this collection that considers how the past, present, and future are related. Choose another essay in which you see Sedaris drawing links between the past, present, and future. Write an essay that shows the presence of this pattern in your chosen essay, making clear what specific ideas Sedaris is conveying about how the past influences the present and how the present might predict the future. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the essay.

Essay Topic 2

In "Lady Marmalade," Sedaris airs evidence for and against his sister Tiffany's claims of sexual abuse. Do you think that an essay intended for public viewing is an appropriate venue for these musings, when neither Lou nor Tiffany is alive to have their voices heard? If Sedaris wanted to focus on his own struggle to come to terms with his sister's accusations, what other detail and language choices might he have made? Would this have been a more appropriate choice, or is the entire topic not really Sedaris's story to share? Write an essay that considers what Sedaris's detail and language choices are meant to convey, what might have been conveyed through different choices, and whether the choices he has made are ethically appropriate.

Essay Topic 3

After reading "Highfaluntin," you considered how Sedaris attempts to dispute his sister Tiffany's charge that he and Amy are pretentious. Certainly, Sedaris lives a life of privilege. But is this the same as being pretentious? Consider the collection as a whole as you develop a claim about how Sedaris's narrative voice and the details he chooses to include in his essays argue for or against him being characterized as pretentious or snobbish. As you examine this idea, consider whether privilege automatically makes a person a snob, or whether some additional element is necessary to justify this characterization. Support your arguments with both quoted and paraphrased evidence from throughout the text.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,277 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample