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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does John describe the scene he encountered after reading Kathy's letter?
(a) He says that no one was in control of their pain.
(b) He says that no one had been spared from suffering.
(c) He says that he and his company carried an enormous burden of suffering.
(d) He says that no one was dying quietly.

2. What is the relationship between Arthur Lux and Vinny Pearson?
(a) Lux backs Vinny Pearson's aggressive questioning.
(b) Lux does not allow Vinny Pearson's distrustful questions.
(c) Lux threatens to fire Vinny Pearson if he keeps asking questions.
(d) Lux gives Vinny Pearson freedom to ask John whatever he wants.

3. When did John pass the bar?
(a) 1968.
(b) 1973.
(c) 1965.
(d) 1977.

4. What time did John get up after the night of the boiling plants?
(a) Six.
(b) Noon.
(c) Nine.
(d) Afternoon.

5. What imagery does O'Brien use to convey the scene of John's anger and Kathy's reaction to it?
(a) The scent of wet wool.
(b) The sound of water splashing.
(c) The comparison of John's pain to electric eels.
(d) The sound of screaming.

6. What does Arthur Lux say about Kathy?
(a) That she is probably dead.
(b) That he did everything he could to find her.
(c) That she will turn up one day.
(d) That she is probably fine.

7. What do John and Kathy do on their seventh day at the cabin?
(a) Put in a garden.
(b) Swim and lie in the sun.
(c) Read and sleep and make love.
(d) Clean the cabin.

8. Who is Kathy?
(a) John's daughter.
(b) John's wife.
(c) John's friend.
(d) John's campaign manager.

9. Where does John go the day after the night of the boiling plants?
(a) Claude Rasmussen's house.
(b) Out on the lake.
(c) Home.
(d) The sheriff.

10. What does John remember about the night of the boiling plants after Arthur Lux and Vinny Pearson leave?
(a) Digging a hole.
(b) Carrying Kathy.
(c) Taking the boat out.
(d) Walking into the bedroom.

11. How do John and Kathy treat each other by their seventh day at the cabin?
(a) They are hostile toward each other.
(b) They are indifferent to each other.
(c) They are careful with each other.
(d) They are intimate with each other.

12. What does John say about secrets?
(a) That he doesn't share certain secrets.
(b) That he keeps them from himself.
(c) That he doesn't keep them.
(d) That he tells Kathy everything.

13. What had John and Kathy tried to do, that had been a failure?
(a) Raised money.
(b) Made love.
(c) Questioned the election results.
(d) Had a child.

14. What did John's campaign manager call John's opponent's tactics?
(a) Bare-knuckle politics.
(b) Take no prisoners politics.
(c) Personal politics.
(d) Ambush politics.

15. What does the narrator hypothesize in Chapter 14, "Hypothesis"?
(a) That Kathy got in a boat accident.
(b) That Kathy died in her sleep.
(c) That John dumped Kathy's body in the lake.
(d) That Kathy wanted to hide from John and have her life back.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of these is NOT a secret John keeps from everyone?

2. What does Kathy say in the letter John gets in Chapter 13, "The Nature of the Beast"?

3. What does John omit from his letters to Kathy from Vietnam?

4. What does the narrator say motivated John to join the military?

5. When did John and Kathy meet?

(see the answer keys)

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