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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 is Gran's response to Nyle's question?
2. What does Muncie invite Nyle to do?
3. What do Muncie and Nyle do after working in the pasture?
4. What does Mr. Sobel tell the students?
5. Why does Muncie go home angry at Nyle?
Short Essay Questions
1. What does Nyle ask her Gran about sheep farming and what is Gran's response? Does Nyle's response surprise you?
2. What happens that demonstrates one minor theme in this book--that is, not accepting people for who they are?
3. How does the emotion of anger appear in this chapter?
4. Why is it ironic that Nyle has to frighten off Tyrus from the sheep?
5. What is ironic about Ezra's feeling about the back room?
6. How do you think the theme of determination plays out in this chapter?
7. The issue of a drawn curtain occurs in this chapter, in previous chapters, and in future chapters. How does this issue come up in this chapter and venture a guess as to the significance of the incident.
8. Ten days after the accident, what does the Principal announce and what do you think your response would be?
9. Contrast the back room how it was used when Nyle is small versus in the story now.
10. What do you think Ezra means when he says he feels like a phoenix?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
In chapter 11, Ezra says he feels like a phoenix and how good it feels to be alive. Answer the following questions by writing a cohesive essay using specific examples and details to illustrate your stance.
1. What is a phoenix? From what culture does the image of the phoenix come?
2. The image of the phoenix occurs in chapter 12 and chapter 21, both in relation to Ezra. Analyze how the image is used in both places and discuss how you think the phoenix is a good image for Ezra.
3. Knowing that Ezra dies in the end, so in a sense he does not rise from the ashes as a phoenix does, how does that inform the title of this book? How could the symbol of the phoenix apply to Ezra at the end of the book?
Essay Topic 2
In chapter 9, Muncie's tone gets judgmental about the people sick with radiation, an attitude which seems prevalent in many outlying communities away from the most badly-stricken areas. Answer the following questions by writing a cohesive essay using specific examples and details to illustrate your stance.
1. Why do you think Muncie and others are judgmental about the people who have radiation poisoning? Give examples to back up your thesis.
2. Whose fault is the entire accident? Is that something anyone knows? Do the people who do not work at the plant think everyone who does work there is somehow to blame?
3. Would you be willing to work at a nuclear power plant? What if it offered higher-than-average wages? Would there be any inducement enticing enough to get you to work at one? Why or why not.
Essay Topic 3
There are a number of symbols that appear throughout the text. One of the ones that appears in a number of chapters is that of the curtain in the back room. Answer the following questions in a well-developed essay using specific examples and details:
1. What does the closed curtain signify? Give examples.
2. What does the open curtain signify? Give examples.
3. What is the broader implication of the symbolic meaning of the curtain?
4. Is there a symbol that represents the same thing as the curtain in your own life? What? How did it come to have that meaning for you?
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This section contains 1,472 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) |
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