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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 the boy sneaks out of his and the girl's bedroom one night, it is because he wants to read more of which book?
(a) East of Eden.
(b) The Road.
(c) Lord of the Flies.
(d) The Elegies of Lost Children.

2. The epigraph by Virginia Woolf introducing Box IV mentions which vehicle of transportation?
(a) A coal cart.
(b) A train.
(c) An airplane.
(d) A bicycle.

3. On what type of document does the boy draw the route he and the girl plan to take as they set out in search of lost people?
(a) A parking ticket.
(b) A court summons.
(c) A map.
(d) A newspaper clipping.

4. The woman recalls that she had been how old when her mother had left the family to "join a guerilla movement" (172)?
(a) 6.
(b) 8.
(c) 5.
(d) 10.

5. What is the woman's answer when the boy asks her what she had liked to do at age ten?
(a) Kissing boys.
(b) Climbing trees.
(c) Playing hopscotch.
(d) Exploring abandoned houses.

Short Answer Questions

1. In the eighth elegy of the book Elegies for Lost Children, it is revealed that the boys in the group are allowed to relieve themselves a maximum of how many times per day while riding atop the train?

2. When the boy says that when he is older his hobby will be to "document things," (233) he says that he will be a what?

3. What object does the boy throw off the cliff as part of his plan to break the silence cast upon the meal by the man and the woman?

4. What color is the book entitled Elegies for Lost Children?

5. In a conversation with the boy, the woman claims that which book is "about human nature" (161)?

Short Essay Questions

1. What major change in narration takes place at the start of the part called Reenactment?

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

3. How does the boy plan to find the way to the town of Lordsburg and what does he plan to do once he and the girl reach Lordsburg?

4. What event causes the woman to question the boy about what he would do if he and the girl ever got lost while on their own?

5. What items does the boy pack in preparation for the trek into the desert and eventually to Echo Canyon?

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

7. In what way does the motif of music enter the part of the narrative when the boy and girl enter a diner to get some water?

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

9. Which section of the fifth elegy causes the woman to stop reading to the boy?

10. In what habit does the girl often engage and what does she call her habit?

(see the answer keys)

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