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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 difficult task does Lise assign to Frank and Jake when the three are gardening together?

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

3. Who first voices the suspicion that Bobby Cole's death might have involved foul play?

4. What does Ruth believe is the true cause of Ariel's change of heart regarding Juilliard?

5. Why is the old stone quarry the boys' usual choice of swimming site when there are three possibilities in town?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Why is Frank so surprised when Officer Doyle asks him his opinion about this year's Minnesota Twins team and asks about his own experiences with baseball?

4. 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?

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

6. What is the outcome of Nathan's and Gus' search for Travis Klement, the man they know to have beaten his wife and son?

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. Where do Frank and Jake go just before Bobby Cole's funeral, and how does Jake's suit sleeve get ripped?

9. 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?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose one character from the novel. Discuss Krueger's use of the four characterization methods to depict this character: indirect description, direct description, revelation by self, and relation by others. How does Krueger use these methods to shape the reader's impression of the character?

Essay Topic 2

Many of the characters within the novel carry around various secrets, unduly burdening them and thus, the people who love them. What is the author's message regarding secrecy, deception, and catharsis?

Essay Topic 3

Many of the novel's characters have war experiences in their pasts that significantly affect their futures. Choose three of these characters, analyze their relationships to war experiences, and state and prove the author's message about the nature of war.

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