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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 the narrator suggest may be the name of the bay instead of Assawoman Bay?

2. How does Ambrose see under the boardwalk?

3. What does the narrator say might provide a foreshadowing of the story’s climax?

4. What does Ambrose imagine about his work when he is an adult?

5. Ambrose thinks everything one sees in Ocean City is preparation and intermission for what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What advertises the funhouse that the family stares at, and what does Peter suggests when they are looking at it? What does Ambrose suggest?

2. How does Magda react to Ambrose taking her arm, and what does he want to tell her?

3. What does the narrator say is the reason a writer should stick with using the Freitag’s Triangle?

4. What does Ambrose imagine about his son and what he might say to the boy?

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

6. Why are the prizes different on the broken machines at the arcade?

7. What does Peter do after giving up on his and his Uncle Karl’s play at the pool?

8. Where does Ambrose go after dinner? What is he looking for and what does he see?

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

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

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

During the trip to Ocean City, Ambrose’s family plays car games. A traditional game is being the first to see the Towers. Ambrose, at four, realized how to win this game every time.

Discuss what understanding how to win a game at the age of four says about Ambrose as a person and what this illustrates about his intellect. Use examples from the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Define plot and include the definitions of the most important elements of a plot. Do all short stories have a plot? Why or why not? Write a brief synopsis of the plot of Lost in the Funhouse, identifying where the various elements of the plot occur (Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution or denouement). Do you find it difficult to identify the plot? Why or why not? What about the various elements of the plot? Give a brief synopsis of any important sub-plots.

(see the answer keys)

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