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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. Where is Shawn the week before his father comes by the house?

2. How many people attend the premiere reading of the poem?

3. What does Shawn think about the city in which he lives?

4. What can really bum out Shawn sometimes?

5. What can be frustrating to Shawn?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Shawn consider ironic about his actual intelligence and the assumed level of his intelligence within his class at school?

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

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

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

6. How much control does Shawn have over his seizures?

7. How does Shawn describe the tests administered by the school psychologist?

8. Why does Shawn think that it is cool to live in Seattle?

9. How does Shawn describe the first signs that he will have a seizure?

10. During his last feeding of Shawn, Sydney tells Lindy that he is mad at something other than at Shawn. What is he mad at?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Shawn's father is consumed by Shawn's vulnerability in the scene in which a crow lands on the power lines above Shawn's head.

Part 1) What does Sydney do or say regarding the crow? Are his words and actions in proportion to the threat of the crow? Why or why not? What does this reaction say about Sydney's opinion of Shawn's vulnerability

Part 2) Is Sydney's opinion of Shawn's vulnerability reasonable, excessive, or something else? How does Sydney's attitude toward Shawn's vulnerability add to our understanding of Sydney's character?

Essay Topic 2

Watching The Alice Ponds Show, it is apparent that both Sydney McDaniel and Earl Detraux say that killing their children is about doing the right thing for the kids. Write an essay about the theme of parental responsibility and mercy killing a disabled child as it relates to Sydney and/or Earl. Pick one of these topics to write about.

Topic 1) What is Sydney's attitude toward the mercy killing a disabled child? It is analogous to what type of disciplinary action a parent might take? How does he relate it to parental responsibility? What is his attitude toward Earl's mercy killing of his child, Collin? Who or what does Sydney say killed Collin?

Topic 2) What is Earl's attitude toward the mercy killing of his own son? Why does he say he smothers him? How does he relate it to parental responsibility? What does he say when asked how he would feel if a cure for Collin is invented? How does this relate to parental responsibility? Is Earl's behavior an example of a mature level of parental responsibility? Why or why not?

Topic 3) What are the similarities and differences between Sydney's and Earl's point of view on parental responsibility and mercy killing a disabled child. Do you think that Earl's actions influence Sydney, validate Sydney's already-existing point of view, or something else? Is Sydney's thought process about mercy killing a disabled child indicative of a mature level of parental responsibility? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Shawn states that he does not like it when people are called "special." Write about at least two characters who can be considered "special" in Stuck in Neutral.

Part 1) What does Shawn mean by "special," who is considered "special," and in what way are there characters in Stuck in Neutral considered special?

Part 2) How does Shawn's attitude and the attitude of others about being considered "special" add tension to the plot?

(see the answer keys)

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