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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 does Diane see happen?

2. When does Tyler fall in love with Diane?

3. Where does Jason work?

4. Where does E.D. spend most of his time?

5. What does the "October Event" come to be named?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Diane leave Tyler in the hotel room?

2. How is Tyler doing with the medicine he has injected and why do you think he is taking the medicine when it has such terrible side effects?

3. Simon is the person Diane seems to have chosen for her lover at this time in her life and yet Jason thinks Simon is the least possible good for Diane. What do you think Jason means by this?

4. 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?

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

6. Why do all the rockets sent to Mars need to reach the membrane simultaneously?

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

8. What is the first "casualty" of the event that comes to be known as "Spin" and what is one consequence of this casualty?

9. Both Jason and Tyler wonder what the Hypotheticals (the name given to the fictional Alien race possibly responsible for the Spin) aimed to accomplish with the Spin. What do you think may be accomplished?

10. Why does Tyler quickly stop reading the letters from his father to his mother and what do you think is the implication of it?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Characters are an important element of most stories. Discuss one of the following:

Compare and contrast Jason to Tyler.

Compare and contrast Jason to Diane.

Compare and contrast Jason to E. D.

Essay Topic 2

E. D. tells Jason that information is generally valuable in the hands of those who can use it. Discuss the following:

Analyze and explain fully what you think E. D. believes about information.

How does access to information give E. D. and others of his ilk power? Give examples.

Compare a character who abuses the acquisition of information to one who uses it for the benefit of human kind.

Does what is discussed in this story about information have any validity in our own world? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

Once some scientists begin to understand the properties of Spin, it is evident that time flows differently inside versus outside of the Spin membrane. Discuss the following:

Compare the properties of time between the inside and outside of Spin.

From the perspective of time, what are the advantages of living inside Spin? The disadvantages?

From the perspective of time, what are the advantages of living outside Spin? The disadvantages.

What do you think it says about the nature of time in that it seems to flow differently inside of Spin versus on the outside?

(see the answer keys)

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