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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. What is NOT one of the water tanks the boy plans to pass along his planned route to a particular canyon?
(a) Willow Tank.
(b) Big Tank.
(c) Echo Tank.
(d) Still Tank.

2. What term does the boy use to describe the things he had "invented and perfected way before" (204) the family's road trip?
(a) Nap-clouds.
(b) Arrow-maps.
(c) Hand-traps.
(d) Finger-maps.

3. What term does the girl use to refer to the boy after he describes how an echo works?
(a) Magician.
(b) Rabbit.
(c) Mr. Wizard.
(d) Liar.

4. As stated in the eighth elegy, the presence of what creature is the only thing that makes the girls in Elegies for Lost Children feel safe as they are crouched between train cars relieving themselves?
(a) An eagle.
(b) One of the boys in their group.
(c) The man in charge.
(d) The conductor.

5. When the woman finds fault with the boy's answer about what he would do if he and the girl became lost, what does she say is the right answer?
(a) Find the North Star and start walking toward it.
(b) Pray.
(c) Sit down and remain still.
(d) Look for a road.

Short Answer Questions

1. The boy recalls the man having once told a story about a little girl in Siberia whose life had been saved against all odds by what kind of animal?

2. In what way does the boy document his and the girl's encounter with the rancher on the tractor?

3. On the family's way to the airport near Roswell, the boy requests a song about David Bowie that focuses on what kind of a person?

4. The coyote in Elegies for Lost Children begins with how many children under his supervision on their way to the United States?

5. When the woman agrees to read to the boy from Elegies for Lost Children, how many chapters does she agree to read aloud?

Short Essay Questions

1. What sight in the backseat causes the woman to relent and to grant the boy's request to play "Space Oddity" again after the "fifth or sixth time" (156)?

2. How does the boy answer the woman's queries about the procedures he would follow if he and the girl ever became lost? What is the woman's reaction to the boy's answer?

3. What example does the boy give when he claims that the girl is "sometimes really smart" (196)?

4. What kind of animal does the boy wish for once he realizes that he and the girl are lost and why?

5. How does the fictional author of Elegies for Lost Children demonstrate the way in which the "man in charge" (164) despises being asked questions?

6. What simile does the boy use to describe his relationship with the woman's mother?

7. What does the airplane symbolize within the Virginia Woolf epigraph at the start of Family Soundscapes: "Box IV"?

8. What event causes the boy to become unhappy for the first time since he and the girl had set out on their journey together?

9. What is the woman's philosophy about answering the questions of the boy and girl?

10. What question does the boy nervously ask the woman during a discussion about the novel Lord of the Flies?

(see the answer keys)

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