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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 has happened to the narrator's sisters in the first essay?

2. What does the author refer to his minister as in the first essay?

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

4. What does the author's father collect in a goldfish bowl for good luck?

5. What does Ya Ya live above?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. What leads Ya Ya to need to be cared for? How does this lead to arguments between the author's parents?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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

Essay Topic 3

What takes place in "Next of Kin"? Where does the title derive from? How does this title take on two meanings in the text? What is the outcome of this story?

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