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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. What is found in the pocket of Skipper's dead body?
(a) A few buttons.
(b) $100 cash.
(c) A necklace.
(d) A photograph.

2. What reason does Frank give for the Fourth of July being one of his favorite holidays?
(a) He likes the pies his mother makes.
(b) He likes the fireworks.
(c) He gets to take the day off from his work at his grandfather's house.
(d) He gets to spend time alone with his sister Ariel.

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

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

5. Who first tells Nathan that Emil has attempted suicide?
(a) Ariel.
(b) Gus.
(c) Ruth.
(d) Jake.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Jake want Frank to answer people's questions about the incident with Emil instead of answering himself?

2. What does Tyler Klement do for work?

3. Why does Jake decide not to go to the fireworks stand with Frank, Gus, and Officer Doyle?

4. After the incident with Officer Doyle and the killing of the animal with the M-80, how does Frank feel about fireworks?

5. What school is Ariel planning to attend after high school?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Frank convince his dad to give him the tire iron for the boys' walk home from the jail and what do they subsequently do with it?

2. How does Officer Doyle's search of Warren Redstone's lean-to sway the reader's opinion of Warren Redstone's character?

3. How is the character of Julia Brandt a foil to the character of Ruth Drum?

4. What is significant about Nathan's query to the boys about whether Gus had been winning at poker?

5. What is revealed about the difference between Frank's and Jake's characters in the moment when they are invited by Gus and Officer Doyle to set off fireworks?

6. How does Gus' monologue about killing a man relate to the novel's title?

7. What happens within the conversation Frank overhears between Nathan and Emil after Emil's return from the private hospital?

8. How does Axel's request of Jake at the hospital reveal differences between Frank and Jake?

9. What causes Frank to abruptly run away from the Indian man and to drag Jake along with him?

10. When Frank and Jake come upon the Indian man and the apparently lifeless man referred to as Skipper, the Indian man says, "Know what I like about railroad tracks? They're always there but they're always moving" (32). When Jake replies, "Just like a river" (32), why is Frank shocked at Jake's reply?

(see the answer keys)

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