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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 do the children do to figuratively escape Count Olaf's home?

2. What is Justice Strauss holding when she first meets the Baudelaire children?

3. What does Violet do just before she gets ready to start thinking of an invention?

4. What does Mr. Poe's son complain about in relation to Sunny?

5. What does Count Olaf blame his past 'standoffish' behavior on?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do Count's guests say when they find that Count is disciplining the children?

2. Explain what happens when Klaus talks back to Count Olaf in chapter four telling him that their family money can't be touched until Violet is of age.

3. How does Mr. Poe treat the children while they are trying to talk to him in Chapter 5?

4. What is the children's response in Chapter 1 when they hear that their parents have just died?

5. What does Mr. Poe explain will happen to the children now that their parents are dead?

6. Describe the children's sleeping conditions at Count Olaf's home.

7. How does Count Olaf describe the play, The Marvelous Marriage, to the children?

8. What is the children's response to Count Olaf when they first meet?

9. Describe the people that come into Count Olaf's house to have dinner.

10. What events do the children remember while talking about Violet burning the toast in Chapter 3?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

At the end of the story it is said that the children face an unknown future. Is their situation any better or safer at the end than it had been when they were living with Count Olaf? Explain. If the story had stopped here, and there had been no sequel, how would it have affected the reader's perception of what happens to the children long term?

Essay Topic 2

Why do many of the adults continually treat Klaus and Violet as if they are children without any sense? What is the author's goal with treating his main characters this way?

Essay Topic 3

Is there anything that the children could have done to befriend Count Olaf?

Would he have been set on killing the children no matter what? Why?

Could Violet have offered him money and bought her and her siblings freedom?

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