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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 do most people do when they hear the funhouse character through the loud speakers?

2. To what does the narrator compare winding parts of the funhouse?

3. Why does the narrator call Ambrose’s father a minstrel in reverse that evening?

4. What does Peter say is the reason Uncle Karl wants to go to the beach?

5. What does Ambrose imagine people think when years after he is still lost in the funhouse they find his skeleton?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why doesn’t Ambrose ask the person he sees how to get out of the Funhouse, and what happens when Ambrose realizes he is lost?

2. What is the truth about Magda’s question that Ambrose does not tell her?

3. How are the teenagers able to get into the Funhouse?

4. What does Ambrose see in his imagination about married life?

5. What is one reason the narrator says exists for not writing a lost-in-the-fun-house story?

6. Why does the family stay out of the ocean, and what do they do instead of swimming in the ocean?

7. How does Ambrose feel after what he sees at the boardwalk, and what does he want to do? What comment does Magda make about Ambrose’s condition?

8. Who does Ambrose see in the Funhouse when he is wandering and what is that person doing?

9. Why do the teenagers return to the Funhouse when their money runs out?

10. How do the people in the car pass the time during the trip?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

While lost in the funhouse, Ambrose wanders into some dark places and sees gears and levers and an old man who seems to be manipulating them. Compare Ambrose’s wandering through the funhouse to the normal confusion Ambrose feels as an adolescent who is not quite a child but not quite an adult.

Essay Topic 2

Characters are an integral and important part of almost all short stories.

Compare/contrast the characters of Ambrose and Peter. How are they similar? How are they different? Is there a flaw in each of their personalities? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Be specific and give examples. How do they seem different? Which do you like more? Why? Which one seems more of a well-rounded character?

Essay Topic 3

Lost in the Funhouse belongs to the short story genre. Define the literary term "genre" and name three other genres in addition to the short story genre. What are the advantages and disadvantages of assigning a genre to literature? What is the difference between a short story and a novel or a play?

(see the answer keys)

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