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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. Who is Jala's ex-wife?

2. What does Simon need?

3. What is an accurate description of Jason?

4. What does Spin offer to the young people of Earth?

5. Who does Jason invite Tyler to meet?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Jason giving Simon a ride in his Ferrari so that they can get a part for their broken car show the contrast between Jason and his sister, Diane?

2. What incident does Tyler recall and what theme does this incident reveal?

3. What is a consequence of the time difference inside and outside of Spin?

4. What might be a possible reason that the end of the story is given at the beginning of the novel?

5. Why does Tyler decide to write the story of him and his friends?

6. Describe the overall approach of the author to the plot.

7. What disease does Tyler say Jason has and what are the implications?

8. What does Ina tell En to do and why?

9. What does Tyler and Ina talk about and what does Ina say?

10. What movement does Diane belong to and how is that movement characterized? How is the behavior of the movement ironic?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When the time relationship of life in Spin become known, it is obvious that most young people will not attain an elderly age. People respond differently to the knowledge that their planet will become uninhabitable in their lifetimes. Discuss the following:

Discuss some of the ways characters in the book respond to the idea of a shortened life span.

One can choose to face certain death in a courageous fashion or cowering in fear and denial. Discuss several characters and how they face their deaths, whether because of the end of the world or from some other reason such as illness.

What would you choose to do with your life if you knew that it would end prematurely?

Essay Topic 2

The chapter titled "No Single Thing Abides" suggests both a major theme in the book and perhaps in "real" life. Discuss one of the following:

Is anything absolute in Spin? In life? Explain fully with examples.

The events in Spin suggests that all is transitory, a theme that has been expounded by numerous religious groups both in Spin and the real world. Do you think the essence of nature is that all things pass away eventually? Why or why not?

How could the perspective that all is transitory impact your life if it is true? How could it change the way you respond to both tragedy and good luck? Explain fully with examples.

Essay Topic 3

Cultural norms typically change fairly slowly, though inexorbitably over generations. Sometimes, though, a cataclysmic event will compress change so that it occurs rapidly, sometimes seemingly overnight. Spin is just such an event that spends up change. Discuss the following:

What happens to cultural norms at the time Spin first appears?

Does changes in the culture seem accelerated? Why or why not?

How has the American culture changed over the years from the time Spin first arrives to when Tyler and Diane leave Earth?

(see the answer keys)

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