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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 color hair does Rico's date have?

2. What does Rico study while he is in the sickbay?

3. What does the captain do while they wait?

4. How many of the recruits did the third regiment end up losing?

5. What does Rico say he hears the sound of?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Rico overhear Zim and Hendrick saying?

3. Summarize Chapter 9.

4. Describe Frankel.

5. Describe meal time on Tours.

6. How does Rico deal with the shakes in the final chapter?

7. What does the Psychological Warfare Corps want to do on Planet P?

8. Describe the Bugs.

9. Why has no one committed a 9080 in Zim's training before?

10. What does Rico think about during the night?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the values of 1950s America.

1) Why was spirituality finding oneself such an issue during this time?

2) In what ways are the characters' negative characteristics a product of their time? Do you think America was going through a transitional phase in the fifties? What significant changes do you think occurred during this period?

3) Does modern society share any values with fifties America?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Examine the recruitment process Heinlein portrays in the book. Is Mr. Dubois basically working as a teacher to find army recruits? What alternative opinions do the students think Rico has available to him? Why is Mr. Dubois and the government teaching such ideology when at the time there is no war? Does such ideology gear a population for war?

(see the answer keys)

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