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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Design Flaws, Room Service, Consuming Pleasures, The Numbers Game, Junk-Food Heaven, How to Have Fun at Home, Tales of the North Woods, The Cupholder Revolution, Number, Please and Friendly People.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Bill Bryson like about his new home town?
(a) It is a suburb.
(b) It has great shopping.
(c) It is close to Boston.
(d) It has a great college.

2. How does Bryson begin "Tales of the North Woods?"
(a) He talks about the town that disappeared, and no one has found it.
(b) He talks about shoveling snow.
(c) He talks about a college student who left a party and died in the woods.
(d) He talks about using a snowmobile.

3. Why did Bill decide to write "Friendly People?"
(a) Because his editor wanted him to.
(b) Because he thought it would be funny.
(c) Because his wife told him all he did was complain in his columns.
(d) Because he had to make good on a bet.

4. When Bill phones the computer hotline to ask for help, what information do they ask him for first?
(a) His Social Security number.
(b) His address.
(c) His date of birth.
(d) The computer's serial number.

5. What does Bill say it would take over 31,000 years to do?
(a) Pay off the national debt.
(b) Travel to Mars and back.
(c) Make the tax system fair.
(d) Count a trillion dollars.

Short Answer Questions

1. What New Hampshire town did the Bryson family settle in during 1995?

2. What does Bill find to be a difficult adjustment for him when he returns to the U.S.?

3. What does Bill find strange about some U.S. commercials?

4. What product first reveals the popularity of toll-free hotline phone numbers to Bill?

5. In "Consuming Pleasures," what does Bill say about shopping in America?

(see the answer key)

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