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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. What is the board like that Dan finds?
(a) He cannot find a board.
(b) Like the ones the old Hawaiians used.
(c) A new slick, fiberglass board.
(d) A dented, fiberglass board that is slightly too short for his frame.

2. What does Mama Chia draw in the sand?
(a) A pentagram.
(b) Leonardo da Vinci's figure of a man in a circle.
(c) A horse.
(d) A square.

3. After Stanford, where does the author accept a teaching position?
(a) University of Ohio.
(b) Swarthmore.
(c) Oberlin College.
(d) University of Georgia.

4. What does Dan have to keep fighting off?
(a) Lassitude.
(b) Despondency.
(c) Panic.
(d) Rage.

5. How does Dan respond when he realizes his predicament?
(a) By trying to contact the authorities with his cell phone.
(b) With a sense of anticipation.
(c) With fear.
(d) With a sense of adventure.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does Millman decide to go?

2. Of what does Fuji have to let go?

3. What does the author do for a job right after graduation?

4. What does Mama Chia see as hidden gifts?

5. Once Mama Chia has taken Dan to the edge and points the way, what does he have to do?

Short Essay Questions

1. Dan imagines all sorts of monsters floating beneath his surfboard; what might this metaphorically represent?

2. What does the college give Dan and where does he go?

3. Dan says he would trade enlightenment for one glass of "pure, cool, quenching water." What do you think this says about the human condition?

4. What is the irony of Dan's situation out on the vast Pacific Ocean?

5. How does Ruth respond to Dan's appearance at the party and what do you think this foreshadows?

6. How does Mama Chia interpret Dan's bad dream?

7. How has Mama Chia been healing Dan and what do you think of her method?

8. Describe Dan's experience in his dreamlike state in chapter 7 and his reaction to the dream.

9. What is the island of Molokai and why is it appropriate that Dan wash up on its shore?

10. Dan remembers that Ruth wrote that the experience he is on is a question of "trust and faith." Do you believe this is true?

(see the answer keys)

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