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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In the stanza of the poem that opens Chapter 8, what is the main question being asked?
(a) What is wrong?
(b) Why is this happening?
(c) Who is in there?
(d) How long must we wait?

2. According to Shawn in Chapter 8, when does his father seem to feel the closest to Shawn?
(a) When sitting quietly next to Shawn in the sun.
(b) During the reading of the award-winning poem.
(c) During his siezures.
(d) When his father laughs after performing the little "ritual."

3. In Shawn's opinion, the fame of the poem turned his father into a professional what?
(a) Philanthropist.
(b) Victim.
(c) Talk show guest.
(d) Writer.

4. When first describing the Severely/Profoundly Handicapped Special Education Program that he attends, how does Shawn describe the class?
(a) A zoo.
(b) A circus.
(c) An oasis.
(d) A refuge.

5. How does Shawn's father talk to him?
(a) He shouts as though Shawn is deaf.
(b) He does not talk to Shawn directly.
(c) He speaks in baby-talk.
(d) He talks to him in an age-appropriate way, but then laughs as though at a joke.

Short Answer Questions

1. What allows Shawn to witness the dog's moment of death?

2. In Chapter 8, Shawn says that his father's books, poems, newspaper and magazine articles and his job teaching literature at college always made him think of his father as what?

3. Who is Cindy?

4. What kind of prize does his father win?

5. Who teaches Shawn to read?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Cindy do when the dog is hit by a car?

2. How does Shawn use the example of George Washington to show the reader that he knows more than he is given credit for?

3. What is Shawn's out-of-body experience like while his father is in the classroom shooting video with a cameraman?

4. How does Shawn describe his father?

5. When talking to her mother, how does Cindy explain her experience with the dog's death?

6. How does Shawn learn to read?

7. When Shawn first heard people referred to as "vegetables," what types of images did he envision in his head?

8. What does the encounter with the crow reveal to Shawn's father, and what thought occurs to him?

9. Why does Shawn say that he has looked into death's eyes?

10. Describe what the special education class at Shoreline High School is like according to Shawn, and how the students behave.

(see the answer keys)

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