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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 does Lizzie know that Dru knows also?

2. What does Jeremy say he could not do?

3. What does Mike try to do with Dru in the car?

4. What does Dru tell Elisa when Elisa gets ready to leave the house?

5. What does Scooter say about Mike and the party?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Scooter ask Mike and Dru to do, why does he ask them and what does Dru think of Scooter jumping?

2. How does Dru feel towards Scooter after Elisa tells Dru about the drowned girl and what does Elisa say to her?

3. Why does Jeremy know about the girl who was injured jumping, and what happens with his talk with Scooter the night before the jump?

4. What does Jeremy say to Dru when she sees him?

5. What is it like at the Nail right before Elisa and Scooter jump, what does Lizzie say and what does Mike do with Dru?

6. What happens when Scooter and Elisa jump and immediately after?

7. What does Mike say about Scooter jumping?

8. What does Dru tell Elisa as Elisa is dressing, what is Elisa's response and what does Elisa do to get ready to go to the party?

9. How does Diane feel about Mike?

10. What happens when Dru shows Elisa the mangled boot?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

There is now a second car and a second drowned girl under the water. They sink to the deepest part of the sea, where no one can find them except those who jump the Nail. Therefore, the jumpers will delve into the deepest part of their insecurities, causing them to be swallowed whole by their insecure motivations. "Jumping the Nail" will return someday because there will always be teenagers with insecurities who are easily influenced by their peers.

1. Discuss what you think is meant by the statement above. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Do you think it is only insecure teens who succumb to peer pressure? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Discuss, in depth, other reasons besides insecurity that a teen might decide to jump off the Nail. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Dru represents a mother figure. The other teenagers are eager to see Elisa and Scooter jump, but it tears Dru apart. She seems to take a motherly role with Elisa because she feels her influence would have stopped her best friend from jumping. Being a mother figure causes Dru not to fit in with the group. She is not rich or beautiful, but more importantly, she looks at the teenagers as people to whom she cannot relate. Thus, she separates herself from her own age group.

1. Dru is very intelligent having received a full scholarship to a prestigious university. Discuss how her intelligence may have contributed to her being a mother figure to some of the teenagers in "Jumping the Nail". Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Why do you think Dru being a mother figure, with the maturity that implies, may interfere with Dru fitting in well with Dru and her peers? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Dru is apparently not only smart, but mature, and these two qualities make her feel like she does not fit in and she has a tendency to separate herself from her own age group. What are ways in which you believe Dru could feel more relaxed and compatible with her peers? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Characters are an integral and important part of almost all novels. Discuss the following:

1. Compare/contrast the characters of Dru and Diane. How are they similar? How are they different? Is there a flaw in each of their personalities? Be specific and give examples.

2. Compare/contrast the characters of Mike and Scooter. How do they seem different? Which do you like more? Why? Which one seems more of a well-rounded character?

3. Thoroughly analyze how three of the secondary characters in "Jumping the Nail" help drive the plot and what their contribution is to the storyline. Are any of the secondary characters unnecessary? Indispensable? Which of the secondary characters are likable? Which are either unlikable or even despicable? Be specific and give examples.

(see the answer keys)

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