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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 much sleep did Dale typically get in a night?
(a) Three hours.
(b) Four hours.
(c) Eight hours.
(d) Six hours.

2. What plans did Hamper and Dale have together for their careers?
(a) Stay in their tasks for thirty years.
(b) Get injured and earn disability pay most of their lives.
(c) Gradually move into a less demanding assembly line.
(d) Move up into management.

3. Why did Roy smoke pot during his lunch breaks?
(a) To stop caring about his life.
(b) Hamper gave it to him.
(c) He was addicted.
(d) To numb the monotony of his job.

4. How did Hamper's maternal grandfather live?
(a) He had trouble holding down a job.
(b) He was punctual to work and drunk all weekend.
(c) He was late for work and constantly drunk.
(d) He was punctual for work and barely drank.

5. What was the routine when Joanie visited Hamper's house?
(a) They would ignore his siblings and make love in the living room.
(b) They would feed his siblings and make love in the living room.
(c) They would feed his siblings and do homework.
(d) They would feed his siblings and drop acid.

Short Answer Questions

1. How did the assembly-line workers originally run their radio?

2. During his first stint at GM, what part of the cars did Hamper work on?

3. What motivated Hamper to make the honor roll during his freshmen year of high school?

4. What did Franklin write on napkins and bits of paper?

5. As Hamper began high school, what was his only plan for his life?

Short Essay Questions

1. Hamper said that Same-O was quite likely the only genius he ever met at the General Motors factory (pg 66). Why did he say this?

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

3. At the end of Chapter 4, Hamper reveals his place in the present time and lets the reader know that the events took place some nine years before he wrote about them. What effect does this have on the reader's perception of the book?

4. What story does Hamper tell involving Lesley Gore's music? How does this story show that Hamper, if only for an hour and twelve minutes, transcended the shop-rat mindset?

5. What kind of person was Joanie? Use Hamper's references to her to create a character description.

6. What do Hamper's stories about high school revolve around? How does this show that he was giving in to the nuns' perception of him that began in junior high?

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

8. How did Hamper begin to construct his life after high school? How was he alone and yet not alone during this time?

9. "I'm thinking that rock stars, even dead ones, don't come cheap" (pg xix). In the context of the Prologue, what does this quote mean?

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

(see the answer keys)

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