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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. How many children did Hamper's parents have?
(a) Three.
(b) Ten.
(c) Seven.
(d) Eight.

2. What music did Hamper and his coworkers listen to at work?
(a) Oldies.
(b) Classic rock.
(c) Country.
(d) Top 40's.

3. As Brown hung around in the Cab Shop, what did he do?
(a) Smoked marijuana.
(b) Fell asleep.
(c) Drank beer.
(d) Read magazines.

4. According to Hamper, why did the nuns not care that he was a poor student?
(a) They were too old to care about much.
(b) They cared less about the children of factory workers.
(c) Their favorites were the obviously talented kids.
(d) They knew the school would produce many underachievers in exchange for a couple brilliant students.

5. What did Roy eventually do to his pet mouse?
(a) Stepped on it.
(b) Set it free from the cardboard box.
(c) Trapped it in the wheel well he was constructing.
(d) Incinerated it with the welder's torch.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did Roy smoke pot during his lunch breaks?

2. Why did Hamper's dad yell at him for his bad grades?

3. When did GM schedule an applicant for a physical?

4. What job did Dale hold during the first part of his day?

5. What machine did Hamper operate in the Cab Shop?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Hamper say about his younger siblings? How did this give the reader another glimpse of family life?

2. How did Hamper's marriage to Joanie end? Given his tone in the writing, what do you think his attitude was during this time?

3. Hamper ends Chapter 3 with the sentence, "The money was right, even if we weren't" (pg 43). What does this mean?

4. Who or what was Hamper's greatest enemy at work? How did he use his new attitude about work to combat the enemy?

5. At the end of Chapter 1, what did Hamper reveal about his hopes for the future? What insight did he show about the past?

6. How did Hamper's stories about life after high school reveal the time period in which they were written? What clues did he give by telling how much things cost?

7. How did Hamper justify his drinking at work? What was his opinion about the people who disapproved of factory workers drinking at work, and is this opinion fair?

8. What pattern emerged in junior-high that led Hamper to consider the life of a shop-rat? How did he begin to identify with his family who had worked in the factory?

9. What promises did the Plant Manager make during the factory meeting? How did Hamper's retelling of the speech change its tone?

10. How does Hamper describe the Cab Shop the first time he goes there? What about the description is the most informative about the scene?

(see the answer keys)

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