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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. What is Tyler doing as he hides in the hotel?

2. What overwhelms Tyler?

3. Who is Simon?

4. What has disappeared from his mother's boxes?

5. How much has the universe outside of Spin aged over the last five years?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Why is the one Russian cosmonaut that makes it back to Earth alive after Spin considered crazy?

4. What is the implication of a world where time moves much more slowly compared to the rest of the Universe?

5. Why does E. D. know about the attributes of Spin and why does he reveal this information to Jason?

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

7. 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?

8. Why do you think many people, not just in this novel, but in real life, tend to turn to religion in a severe crisis?

9. Where does the cab take Tyler and Diane and who do they meet?

10. Why do you think most of the Lawtons converge on Washington, D.C. to be witho Belinda, who has suffered a severe stroke and is not expected to live?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Chapter one opens in the present but then flashes back to the past. This technique is done with a literary device called a flashback. There are a number of literary devices in this novel. Discuss one of the following:

Define "flashback" and give examples of it in the novel. What is the purpose of a flashback? How effective is the use of flashbacks in this story? What is a weakness of using flashbacks? Why do you think the author choices to use flashbacks in this story so often? Would this story be very different if told completely in chronological order? Why or why not? How would it change the plot?

Define metaphor and give examples of it in the novel. What is the purpose of a metaphor? How effective is the use of metaphors in this story? What is a weakness of using metaphors? Would this story be very different if there were no metaphors? Why or why not? How would it change the plot?

Choose one literary device that occurs in Spin and answer the following questions:

What is the purpose of the literary device? How effective is the use of the literary device in this story? What is a weakness of using this literary device? Would this story be very different if there were no occurrences of this literary device? Why or why not? How would it change the plot?

Essay Topic 2

Science fiction, though fiction, has a marvelous way of sometimes heralding the future. Much of what was written as "science fiction" in the 1940s and 1950s is now reality. Discuss the following:

What in Spin do you think could become a reality in the future? Why?

Do you think human beings create a future reality by envisioning it in the present? Why or why not?

If humans do indeed create reality in the future by envisioning it in the present, what sort of responsibility does that suggest for present "creators"? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

When Spin first appears, the Chinese decide to "nuke" the structures at the two poles which seem to hold the membrane in place. Discuss the following:

Often, when something is not understood, it is attacked. There are other examples of this throughout Spin. Give some examples and analyze those examples to explain why you think the people behave as they do in Spin.

Enumerate and analyze examples of how the principle of attacking that which we do not understand happens in the "real" world.

Create a different model for dealing with that which is new and alien to a culture or one's individual way of life. Show how you might use your plan in specific instances in the book and/or "real" life.

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