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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 horse tell the boy is true about everyone?

2. What secret has the horse been keeping?

3. What is the first thing that the four friends do once they are all together?

4. What is the boy looking at when he asks how "they" can be so "together and perfect" (68)?

5. Which animal does the boy meet third?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the art change when the boy falls into the water?

2. What does the boy say about doing "nothing" with friends, (47), and what causes him to say it?

3. When the boy realizes that his friends know all about him, what does he ask and what do they answer?

4. The horse asks the other three what their reasons are for keeping going. What do they say?

5. What does the horse say is the most important thing, and why?

6. There are two separate sets of pictures of the four friends playing together. What is different about the second set of images?

7. What lesson does the horse teach the boy about strength?

8. When the boy points out that the fox hardly ever talks, what does the fox say, and how does the horse react?

9. What do the mole and the horse teach the boy about perfection?

10. What is funny about one of the drawings that is about perfection?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why is the mole so obsessed with cake? Write an essay in which you explain the mole's relationship to cake and what you think this is saying about life.

Essay Topic 2

This book shows that things that seem small can be big in their importance, that strength can be confused for weakness, and that sometimes people who seem angry and scary are actually nice people who are just hurting. Explain how the book uses contradictions like these to create a larger message about life.

Essay Topic 3

The boy, the fox, the mole, and the horse can each be understood to stand for a particular kind of person. Choose one of them and explain what type of "real world" person they stand for. Give evidence from the story to help your reader understand your ideas.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 743 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample