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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. Which of the following identified phosphates?

2. As what is Rafi’s stepfather employed?

3. Which of the following islands does Evie favor?

4. In what creature does Bart specialize?

5. To which university does Evie apply?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the young Evie fear nitrogen intoxication?

2. What motivates Rafi’s father’s insistence on his reading?

3. What is the irony of phosphate mining on Makatea?

4. How does Evie camouflage herself while in high school?

5. Why is Evie asked about continental drift in her admissions appeal?

6. Why does Tamatoa not sleep at night?

7. What game does Rafi play at the Taylor library?

8. In applying for high school admission, what does Rafi note is his favorite place in the world?

9. Why does Rafi dislike reading the encyclopedias his father gave him?

10. What does Evie answer when asked about her life philosophy?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How reliable is the narrator of the first-person sections of the novel? What in the text indicates that reliability, and how does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

Assuming that Playground should be standard reading for a given class and level, what class and what level? Why that class and why that level? What in the text suggests as much, and how does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

The lengths of sections influence reading. What pattern of section-length is present in the novel, if any? What effect does the length of chapters have on the reading? How is the effect achieved?

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