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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In "In a Field of Stray Caterpillars," what does the burning chicken casserole demonstrate about the characters' lives?
(a) People with a lot of chaos in their lives generally cause a lot of their own problems.
(b) Even adverse circumstances sometimes provide a chance to laugh at the absurdity of life.
(c) Small everyday problems are more complex and can get out of control more quickly when you are working with limited resources.
(d) Family relationships are a never-ending series of obligations, and sometimes not everyone gets what they need.

2. What is Frick's real name?
(a) Everett.
(b) Charles.
(c) Melvin.
(d) Fred.

3. In "In a Jar," when Paige first arrives, what does David realize their mother has not told Paige about?
(a) Her reasons for leaving their father.
(b) That the move north is permanent.
(c) Her relationship with Frick.
(d) The jar they found behind the step.

4. In "In a Field of Stray Caterpillars," what is one thematic point reinforced when Fellis cannot return the movie he was supposed to return?
(a) For Fellis, happiness is not an abstraction but a concrete, almost physical thing.
(b) The price of Fellis's happiness is losing some of his capacity for memory.
(c) The relationship between David and Fellis is dysfunctional and contributes to their unhappiness.
(d) Fellis's unhappiness is directly related to his inability to follow through on his goals.

5. In "The Blessing Tobacco," where is Paige working?
(a) The liquor store.
(b) The grocery store.
(c) A restaurant.
(d) A pawnshop.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "In a Jar," where do David and Paige go with their grandmother?

2. In "Get Me Some Medicine," what is the real cause for Fellis dropping out of college?

3. In "In a Jar," what happens to Paige on the night the siblings hear the knocking in the walls?

4. During the action of "Get Me Some Medicine," where is it implied that David's mother is?

5. In "The Blessing Tobacco," whom does David's grandmother mistake him for?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "Get Me Some Medicine," why does Fellis get so angry at David for saying that Meekew could beat Fellis in a fistfight?

2. In "The Blessing Tobacco," where does David get a drink on his way home from his grandmother's, and what is the significance of this?

3. In "In a Field of Stray Caterpillars," what is the rhetorical purpose of the story's ambiguous ending?

4. In "In a Field of Stray Caterpillars," how does David use the layout of the hospital as a metaphor for the human mind?

5. How does David discover the jar in "In a Jar"?

6. In "Get Me Some Medicine," what details demonstrate that David's friendship with Fellis does not blind David to Fellis's faults?

7. In "The Blessing Tobacco," when David is feeling sick, how does Paige demonstrate her concern and affection?

8. In "The Blessing Tobacco," how does David end up smoking cigarettes at his grandmother's house?

9. In "Burn," what point about economic realities on the reservation does David make as he steps in the boot prints along the sidewalk on his way home?

10. In "Food for the Common Cold," what is the difference between the way the adult narrator David and the child David in the story see the mood in the household during the week that Frick is gone?

(see the answer keys)

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