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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. Who stays with Lise at her house while Emil is in the hospital?
(a) Julia and Axel.
(b) Jake and Frank.
(c) Frank and Ruth.
(d) Jake and Ariel.

2. What is the punishment that Frank and Jake receive as a result of playing at the tracks?
(a) They are not allowed to ride in Karl's sports car for one week.
(b) They are not allowed to leave the yard without permission from a parent for one week.
(c) They have to do Ariel's chores, as well as their own, for one week.
(d) They are not allowed to use the phone for one week.

3. 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) Gus throws up in their father's backseat.
(c) Frank wants to try peeping at their next door neighbor before returning home.
(d) Their father does not tell them why they have to walk home.

4. Why is the new Bremen bank a source of fascination for Frank?
(a) Because it had been robbed the year before and the crime had never been solved.
(b) Because he has a crush on the bank teller.
(c) Because he wants to be a banker when he grows up.
(d) Because it had been robbed by Pretty Boy Floyd in the 1930s.

5. What object does Frank see sticking out of Danny's Uncle Warren's pocket?
(a) Ariel's necklace.
(b) Skipper's photograph.
(c) Bobby Cole's eyeglasses.
(d) Jake's rollerskate key.

Short Answer Questions

1. When Frank leaves Emil and Lise's house and goes to Warren Redstone's lean-to, who does he see there?

2. Whose conversation does Frank overhear when he is hiding behind the stage at the theater?

3. What song does Ruth Drum sing at Bobby's funeral?

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

5. Why do Frank and Jake look forward to Saturday dinners at their house?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. What are the reasons Officer Doyle gives for finding Bobby Cole's death suspicious?

5. 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?

6. How does Nathan react to Father Peter's communication with him about the townspeople's problems with Ruth?

7. 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?

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

9. During Gus' and Frank's conversation about Nathan's experiences in the war, what two sources of information does Gus warn Frank against heeding?

10. What messages is the reader meant to absorb from the conversation between Frank and Warren Redstone in the O'Keefes' basement?

(see the answer keys)

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