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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 the Thomas family arrive on Mars?

2. How do the people on Earth let the people on Mars know what is going on on Earth?

3. What happens to the McClellans' house at the end of the chapter?

4. How did Father Peregrine describe the fighting during the war in China when he was a boy?

5. What ethnicity is fleeing Earth for Mars in this chapter?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the author's purpose in including such a small chapter simply about elderly people making the move to Mars?

2. Why do you believe Father Peregrine purchases a new valise before he leaves the luggage store?

3. Describe the game the young Earth boys play that disturbs and disgusts the parents.

4. How is the role of mankind reversed in this chapter and what feelings are experienced by the people on Mars.

5. Why do Sam and his wife escape into the sand ship and what leads them to return to their hotdog stand?

6. What do the new inhabitants of Mars call the elderly people who have begun to come to Mars?

7. Why does Teece want the townsfolk to call the governor when he sees the black men and women heading toward the rockets?

8. What does Teece see as a victory at the end of the chapter even though the blacks had gotten into the rockets and have left Earth?

9. Why does Hathaway believe he and his family are going to be rescued and how long as he been waiting to be rescued?

10. What causes the destruction of the house and how does the house react?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Many of the events within this novel are disturbing to the reader. Do you believe this was the intention of the author? Why or why not? Why would an author intentionally include disturbing events?

Essay Topic 2

How does the colonization of Mars change throughout the novel? Do you believe the changes represent a circle? In what way or why not?

Essay Topic 3

How is the feeling of justice portrayed throughout the novel? Which characters leave the reader with a feeling of justice? How does the author convey this feeling to the reader?

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