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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 does Simon finally talk to on the phone?

2. What happens to the replicators launched from Earth?

3. Who complains to Tyler about Diane and Jason?

4. About what does E.D. try to convince Lomax?

5. What did the replicators require that no one but Jason knew?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Wun say about the replicator technology and why it might be helpful?

2. What does Tyler do about Diane's disease and what does he tell Jason?

3. What does Tyler wonder about Diane and how does she respond?

4. What is in the envelope Tyler received after from Jason after he died? Why did Jason leave him the envelope?

5. What does Tyler do and how does he feel when men burn down Ina's clinic?

6. Where do Diane and Tyler go at the end of the book? What was the ultimate purpose of the Spin membrane?

7. As Tyler, Diane and others are waiting to leave what happens?

8. What does Jason tell Tyler about the Martian ambassador, conditions on Mars and why he was sent?

9. What does Simon say about his conflict between Diane and his beliefs?

10. What does Wun tell Tyler about a possible cure for Jason?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Tyler is writing a record of his past, which could be called a journal, memoir or autobiography. Discuss the following:

What is a journal? Is it the same as a memoir or autobiography? Why or why not.

What is gained by framing this story in the format of a memoir? What is lost by doing so?

Although Spin is a work of fiction, the author would have the readers "suspend their disbelief" and view it as an actual memoir describing actual events. If the reader were to assume the events described in Tyler's writings were actually true, how do you think the point of view of the narrator would bias the account?

(see the answer keys)

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