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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. How many officers does MI have?

2. What does Ace say that Rico has to become an officer?

3. How many different castes of bugs are there?

4. Who does Rico mentor?

5. What rank is Rico's father?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Rico, Leivy, and Smith's fight with the Marines.

2. Describe meal time on Tours.

3. What do the soldiers capture on Planet P?

4. What does Rico realize about his new life when he visits Vancouver?

5. Why has Rico's father joined the army?

6. Why are the recruits more shocked at a flogging than seeing death?

7. What does Rico think about during the night?

8. What does Frankel order Zim to do?

9. What is the aim of the mission in the final chapter?

10. What are Rasczak's and Jelal's roles aboard the Rodger Young?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Starship Troopers is written in the first person and with Rico as narrator. Why do you think Heinlein chose to write the story in the first person? How do you think the meaning of the story would have changed if it was written in the third person? What difference does it make to the story that Heinlein is one of the characters?

Essay Topic 2

Is Heinlein promoting the use of women in warfare? Why does he not have women fighting on the ground? Do the students agree that women and men are better at different jobs such as piloting and fighting? What kind of reaction do you think Heinlein would have gotten in the fifties in such a book if he had portrayed women as being flogged?

Essay Topic 3

Why do the students think Rico's father does not want him to join the army? Is Rico reacting against his father's views? In what way will Rico become a parasite on society if peacetime continues and he is in the army? Why is an army important in Heinlein's earth if it is peacetime? Does preparing for war in peacetime encourage war to happen?

(see the answer keys)

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