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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why do Frank and Jake walk home from the jail instead of riding in their father's car?
(a) Jake wants to go break out Morris' headlights before returning home.
(b) Their father does not tell them why they have to walk home.
(c) Frank wants to try peeping at their next door neighbor before returning home.
(d) Gus throws up in their father's backseat.

2. Who touches Lise and sends her into a screaming fit after Emil attempted suicide?
(a) One of the firemen who arrive at the scene.
(b) Nathan.
(c) One of the policemen who arrive at the scene.
(d) Frank.

3. Why is the old stone quarry the boys' usual choice of swimming site when there are three possibilities in town?
(a) Because the country club requires membership and the public pool is too crowded.
(b) Because the public pool costs money and the country club is full of snobs.
(c) Because the creek is generally dried up this time of year and the public pool costs money.
(d) Because the quarry is the only swimming site with nice scenery.

4. What school is Ariel planning to attend after high school?
(a) Juilliard.
(b) NYU.
(c) New Bremen Community College.
(d) Harvard.

5. How many children do Axel and Julia Brandt have?
(a) 4.
(b) 3.
(c) 1.
(d) 2.

6. In what month and year does the narrator's story begin?
(a) January of 1961.
(b) January of 1967.
(c) July of 1969.
(d) July of 1961.

7. What reason does Frank give for thinking his father might be disappointed to find Frank and Jake reading comic books?
(a) Because he thinks his father wishes they were doing homework instead.
(b) Because he thinks his father wishes they were reading the set of encyclopedias in which he invested.
(c) Because he thinks his father sees comic books as a waste of the boys' earned money.
(d) Because he thinks his father disapproves of the content in comic books.

8. Why does Jake decide not to go to the fireworks stand with Frank, Gus, and Officer Doyle?
(a) He says he has a bad feeling about it.
(b) He does not have money to buy fireworks.
(c) He and Frank are still technically grounded.
(d) He wants to stay and bake with Ariel.

9. Who finally convinces Lise to leave Emil's side at the hospital so Emil can be alone and get some much-needed rest?
(a) Ruth.
(b) Jake.
(c) Frank.
(d) Nathan.

10. Why do Frank and Jake look forward to Saturday dinners at their house?
(a) Because their mother makes their favorite dinner: pot roast.
(b) Because Ariel always brings her boyfriend Karl to dinner.
(c) Because that night Gus always comes to dinner.
(d) Because their father usually cooks and often they get to eat outside.

11. Where do Frank and Jake always go after they are done with their grandfather's yard work?
(a) The river.
(b) Halderson's Drug Store.
(c) The railroad tracks.
(d) Edna Sweeney's house.

12. What method does Emil use to attempt suicide?
(a) An overdose of aspirin.
(b) Hanging.
(c) An overdose of sleeping pills.
(d) An overdose of pain medication.

13. What prompts Gus and Morris to be thrown in jail?
(a) They rob the local liquor store.
(b) They get caught drag racing.
(c) They get caught gambling at a poker game.
(d) They get into a fistfight in the bar parking lot.

14. Who first voices the suspicion that Bobby Cole's death might have involved foul play?
(a) Ruth.
(b) Nathan.
(c) Gus.
(d) Officer Doyle.

15. Why are Frank and Jake not technically allowed by their parents to swim at the old quarry?
(a) Because there is a No Trespassing sign there and there is still dangerous machinery at the bottom of the swimming hole.
(b) Because the cliffs the boys dive from are treacherous.
(c) Because the quarry lies at the end of a winding road that has been the scene of many pedestrian fatalities.
(d) Because the quarry is a frequent hangout for the town's delinquents.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who first breaks the silence about the dead man on the tracks?

2. What two words does Emil keep repeating once he returns home from the private hospital?

3. What river flows through the town of New Bremen?

4. Who stays with Lise at her house while Emil is in the hospital?

5. What does Tyler Klement do for work?

(see the answer keys)

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