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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. Where does Ya Ya live in the beginning of the third essay?

2. What color towels does the author's mother replace the old ones with in "True Detective"?

3. What is the narrator obsessed with licking in the second essay?

4. What is the name of the author's father's friend with the missing eye?

5. What does Ya Ya live above?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why are the narrator's sisters kidnapped in "Chipped Beef"? How do his parents react?

2. What does David's mother insist he stop doing to the cat? Why?

3. What does Miss Chestnut scold David for in "A Plague of Tics"?

4. Who injures the author in "Cyclops"? What is the result?

5. What is David's father's obsession? Where does he take them in "Women's Open"?

6. What happens after the golf tournament in "Women's Open"?

7. What is the eventual "cure" for David's tics? How?

8. How does David's father obtain golf tees? Why does he collect them?

9. What is the second household mystery in "True Detective"? What is the backlash the author finds himself in?

10. Why do David's teachers come to his home? What is their impression of his mother?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the author's use of structure and motif in the essay "True Detective." Describe ways in which the author "sets up" the humor in this piece.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the theme, "The Good and Bad of Humanity." How is this theme reflected in several essays? Give examples of persons from the text who represent each.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Sedaris' use of satire. How does satire apply to a memoir piece? How does the author's structure reflect this style?

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