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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. Why can't George invoke the name given to him by Aunt Flo?
(a) He has a piece of food wedged in his windpipe.
(b) He forgets the name.
(c) He has lost his voice.
(d) Gramma has him by the throat.

2. What other item does the milkman add to his delivery?
(a) Acid gel.
(b) Cyanide gas.
(c) All of the answers are correct.
(d) Belladonna.

3. What does Nona turn into?
(a) A ghost.
(b) A corpse.
(c) A rat.
(d) A vampire.

4. What is the name of the fiction editor for Logan's magazine?
(a) Henry.
(b) Rex.
(c) George.
(d) Stan.

5. What does Richard Pine do after he breaks his ankle?
(a) Uses heroin and becomes addicted.
(b) Amputates his foot and eats it.
(c) All answers are correct.
(d) Amputates everything below his groin and eats it.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is giving Nona a hard time when the narrator meets her?

2. What does Shapiro begin to think the sands can do?

3. What does Rand do as the rescue ship leaves?

4. Why is George left home alone to watch Gramma?

5. What is the implication for George at the end of "Gramma"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Rumor had it that Gramma was a witch and apparently became one because she could not carry a baby to term. Do you think Gramma was justified to dabble in witchcraft to attain her dream?

2. At the end of "Nona," the narrator is surrounded by rats, and Nona herself turns into a huge, disgusting rat. The narrator then embraces the rat and indicates that he is planning suicide. What do you think this story is really about?

3. Identify a simile from "The Reaper's Image" and explain how the simile adds to the description.

4. There is a rumor in the family that Gramma did something to Franklin to make him die. Do you think the family is just overreacting to their guilt and loss by blaming it on Gramma?

5. Think about the setting of "The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands." How does the setting of this story add to its scary feeling?

6. The milkman in King's short stories is certainly not your ordinary milkman. He spreads death rather than cheer with wholesome milk. What about Spike makes his methods that much more unusual?

7. "The Reaper's Image" is perhaps one of the creepiest tales in "Skeleton Crew." What aspect of this story make it particularly appropriate for a King collection?

8. Children are often frightened by elderly relatives. Everything about them seems foreign and frightening. Do you think George's fear of Gramma was instinctual or merely the usual fear a child has of older people?

9. Richard Pine is a man who has made his fortune as a surgeon with his hands, but the rest of his life has been shady and complicated. However, through it all, he protected his hands. How do you think he felt when his hands were the only things he had left, and he was faced with eating those for survival?

10. What do you think would be the worst part of being afflicted as Brower is in "The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands"? Use examples from the text to support your theory.

(see the answer keys)

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