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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When did John and Kathy know that the election was lost?
(a) Election night.
(b) Three days after the election.
(c) Six weeks after the election, when the last appeal was turned down.
(d) Weeks before election night.

2. How does John describe his memory of the night of the boiling water?
(a) Insane.
(b) Spotty.
(c) Disjointed.
(d) Crystal clear.

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

4. What happens to John after reading Kathy's letter?
(a) The massacre at Thuan Yen.
(b) He learns magic tricks.
(c) He loses the election.
(d) His father dies.

5. 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 Kathy wanted to hide from John and have her life back.
(d) That John dumped Kathy's body in the lake.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Claude Rasmussen say about Vinny Pearson's suspicions?

2. What does John notice the morning after the night of the boiling plants?

3. How do John and Kathy deal with the fact that their dreams are impossible for the moment?

4. What do John and Kathy do on their seventh day at the cabin?

5. What did one of the members of John's company have attached to his helmet?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Claude Rasmussen's opinion about what happened?

2. What do we hear about Weatherby that adds to what we heard about earlier?

3. What happens shortly after John got this letter from Kathy?

4. What indication does the book give us about what really happened?

5. What is the problem with the hypothesis in Chapter 14?

6. Describe the setting of the opening scene of In the Lake of the Woods.

7. What was John's experience of Vietnam like, and what did Weatherby have to do with his experience?

8. What additional information do we get about the night of the boiling plants?

9. Describe the importance of the abortion Kathy had.

10. What does John tell Kathy in his letters from Vietnam?

(see the answer keys)

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