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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. How does Ambrose see an old man who reminds him of his grandfather?

2. On what does the lady on the cigar box sit?

3. Why have Ambrose and his family come to Ocean City?

4. What does Ambrose fear is the difference between himself and others?

5. What does Ambrose notice is missing that causes Ambrose to falter when he is lost in a dark area of the funhouse?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Ambrose know Magda and Peter have exited the Funhouse?

2. What does the narrator say is the function of the beginning of a story?

3. What happens to Ambrose’s father the first day, and what does his father have to do about it?

4. What does Ambrose imagine his father saying to him about getting through the Funhouse?

5. What does Ambrose’s mother give the three teenagers when they reach the boardwalk, and what does she say to them and why?

6. Who is in the car with Ambrose driving to Ocean City?

7. What does Magda win during 'Looking for the Towers', and what does she do with her prize?

8. What was often done in 19th Century fiction to make a work appear real?

9. What is Ambrose’s father doing while Ambrose is in the Funhouse?

10. How does Ambrose feel about Magda and what is he afraid to do about it?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze and discuss what you think are the characteristics of a successful short story and why Lost in the Funhouse is or is not a successful short story based on your criteria. Do you think the criteria for a successful short story should be different if it is written for adults versus young adults?

Essay Topic 2

Ambrose declares that a person thinks he is himself but there are other people within everyone. Discuss what you think Ambrose means by this statement. Do you agree with him? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

When Ambrose is below the boardwalk he hears his family laughing above him. The narrator comments that if Ambrose was not old enough or smart enough to understand the joke he could have said: “The laughter was over his head.” Discuss what the author is attempting to do by including this commentary by the narrator about wordplay.

(see the answer keys)

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