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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. Howie says all of these have gone through disorienting changes EXCEPT one.

2. Howie compares sneaker shoelaces to _________ at the end of Chapter 1.

3. What has broken at the beginning of Chapter 2?

4. What would Howie's mother bring home wrapped in paper?

5. What coincidence about ___does Tina relate to Howie?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Howie celebrate what he considers to be the realization that he is an adult?

2. Howie does Howie's shoelace break?

3. How many of Howie's escalator memories come from his childhood?

4. Why has Howie mostly given up drinking milk?

5. What does Howie consider to be his sixth major advancement in life?

6. What were the "systems of local transport" that Howie liked as a child?

7. Why does Howie consider the purchase of a rubber stamp to be one of his advancements?

8. What is the treat that Howie gives himself after making a resolution to not get carried away by nostalgia?

9. What thoughts about bread does Howie have while riding the subway?

10. What point is Howie trying to make in his footnote about doorknobs?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare Howie and Marcus Aurelius. What is the significance of Howie's fascination with Aurelius?

Essay Topic 2

What is the symbolic significance of both the shoelaces and how Howie resolves the mystery of the shoelace breakage?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the literary impressionism used in the novel and the overall effect it creates.

(see the answer keys)

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