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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 is Ya Ya's recently deceased pet?

2. Where does the author's father vehemently object to the author moving?

3. What is the name of the family in the book the author finds in "Next of Kin"?

4. What does Ya Ya live above?

5. How does Ya Ya start a fire while at the community living apartment?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does David fantasize about his "real parents" in "Chipped Beef"?

2. What does Lisa complain about in "Women's Open"? How does her father react?

3. Why does David discover his mother sobbing in the bathroom in "Chipped Beef"? What is his consolation?

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

5. How does "Next of Kin" become passed through the family? What finally happens to it?

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast the author's mother and father in the essays. How are these personalities similar? How do they differ?

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

Make a case for what you feel is the strongest theme throughout the book as a whole. What theme appears in most essays?

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This section contains 841 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample