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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 many siblings does the author have?

2. Who leaves a large inheritance to the author's mother?

3. What kind of car has the author's father bought in the sixth essay?

4. What is the author's mother's name?

5. Who does the author say he is considering asking to wax his coins in the first essay?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when David's father visits him in New York?

2. What is the first mystery in "True Detective"? How is it solved?

3. What changes David's father's mind about Ya Ya's being taken to a care facility? Where does he take her?

4. Where is Ya Ya from, and how do she and David's mother feel about each other?

5. What does "Dix Hill" refer to? Why is this fascinating to the author?

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

7. Why does the author's mother leave behind a video for Lisa? What is on it?

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

9. What does David encounter when he returns to Dix Hill?

10. Describe what the title, "Next of Kin" refers to.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the author's use of "punch lines" in the text. What are examples of these in the essays? What is a "punch line" defined as?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the author's use of language as a comedic technique in "Drama Bug." How does his family react to his behavior in this essay? What is the outcome?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the theme of "Imagination versus Reality" in the essays of Naked. How does this theme carry across into different stories?

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