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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is on the apron worn by the woman in the kitchen?
(a) Yellow chickens
(b) Silver spoons
(c) Red strawberries
(d) Blue daisies

2. What does Carl say he learned about the inverted pyramid in journalism school?
(a) That you begin at the beginning of the story
(b) That you keep the most important fact for the end
(c) That you begin with the most important fact
(d) That you tell the story in chronological order

3. What does the "flying virgin" write across the New Mexican sky?
(a) Don't litter
(b) God is the answer
(c) Stop having babies
(d) Neuter your animals

4. What does Carl discover about his ability to remember the culling song?
(a) He has to look at the words again in his notes
(b) That he can remember the words
(c) He has to look at the words again in the book
(d) He has to call Helen and ask for the first line

5. What is the topic of the song that Carl reads to Duncan?
(a) Children going to sleep
(b) Animals going to sleep
(c) The stars coming out at night
(d) Flowers blooming on a creek bank

6. How many copies of the book were there in the original press run?
(a) 500
(b) 306
(c) 39
(d) 194

7. What does Helen tell Rhonda she has to do to get past the grief?
(a) Cry until she's exhausted
(b) Have many more children
(c) Give herself time to grieve
(d) Make herself hard

8. What is the headline on the newspaper Nash hands Carl?
(a) Culling song revealed
(b) Newspaper reporter sought in deaths
(c) Seven dead in mystery plague
(d) Group looks for mystery book

9. What does the man in the trench coat do to make Carl angry?
(a) Throws a newspaper on the ground
(b) Refuses to move out of the way
(c) Shoves him and calls him a name
(d) Yells at an old woman

10. What is the setting for the story Carl reads about the 1983 case in which the nurse's aide kills a patient?
(a) New York, New York
(b) Florence, Italy
(c) Vienna, Austria
(d) Lincoln, Nebraska

11. What is the name realtors give to the houses that are haunted?
(a) Hopeless houses
(b) Chained houses
(c) Haunted houses
(d) Distressed houses

12. What does Carl say is the only pattern in crib deaths?
(a) That the number of deaths increases during school vacations
(b) That the number of deaths is completely unrelated to the weather
(c) That the number of deaths increases as the weather cools
(d) That the number of deaths decreases during times of economic stress

13. What is near the bowl of oranges?
(a) A bowl of holy water
(b) A brass statue
(c) A candle
(d) A tube of lipstick

14. How old was Patrick when he died?
(a) Eight days
(b) Three months
(c) Six weeks
(d) Six months

15. Who is the last person the Stuarts talked to on their cell phones?
(a) Mona
(b) Helen
(c) Duncan
(d) Carl

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the guy with sideburns say to the person on the cell phone?

2. What kind of house does Helen say she and her husband lived in when their son, Patrick, died?

3. What does Helen have in her hand when she's talking with Mona?

4. What does Carl say is the only fact known about sudden infant death syndrome?

5. What color is Helen's purse?

(see the answer keys)

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