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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 does the caseworker use while helping at Tender's employers' house?

2. Why do Tender's brother and his wife visit the outside world?

3. Why does Tender look for the obituaries of the people who have killed themselves while on the phone with him?

4. The day after the date where Fertility explains her dreams to Tender, who bombards him with phone calls?

5. What does Tender reveal that someone leaked to the FBI ten years ago?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is happening as the novel opens?

2. What is the exchange between the pilot and Tender Branson before the pilot leaves the hijacked plane?

3. How does Tender feel about Fertility's dreams and what is her response to him?

4. How does naming or rank work in the Creedish Church culture?

5. What is Tender told about the outside world the night before he leaves the Creedish Church District, and who is the source of the information?

6. What diseases does the caseworker diagnose Tender with, and why does she do this?

7. Why does Tender have a caseworker?

8. After Tender's first "date" with Fertility, he returns to his apartment and picks up the ringing phone, thinking it will be Fertility. Who is on the other end and what is the conversation between Tender and the caller?

9. What is Tender's strategy for his first "date" with Fertility and a possible relationship with her?

10. What is the discussion between Tender and his caseworker after he believes he has taken a call from the killer of the Creedish survivors? Why does she tell him not to worry?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Do any of the events in "Survivor" echo real life situations in America? How is the American fascination with the Creedish Church in the novel similar with our views and thoughts about real life cults and religious sects in America? Is the author making a statement about American views of religion in "Survivor"? Explain.

Essay Topic 2

When Tender becomes the last survivor, he is immediately inundated with phone calls from producers and agents wanting to turn him into a religious celebrity. What is the fascination with Tender as a religious "superstar"? Describe the character of the agent and what happens to Tender when their relationship begins. What does the character of the agent symbolize? Why is he referred to simply as "the agent"?

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the novel, Tender gives bits and pieces of his past to the reader. The reader is able to piece together Tender's past and identify how he came to be the way that he is in the present. Tender, however, seems reluctant to share this information with the reader, much as he is with the caseworker. Discuss Tender's views on memories and his past. Is there a discrepancy between Tender's memories and what really happened in his past? Why? How does the reader discover this?

(see the answer keys)

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