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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. About when were Harv Kline's two children born?
(a) 1865 and 1867
(b) 1993 and 1995
(c) 1776 and 1778
(d) 1982 and 1984

2. What clears the "mummified grease" (p. 92) from the touchhole of the "sweet" rifle?
(a) John Byam pricks it with a needle
(b) Tim Harrow removes it while cleaning the rifle
(c) A candle flame melts it
(d) Harv Kline's cigarette melts it

3. Why does Mrs. Kline put candles on the mantle?
(a) She's celebrating Halloween
(b) To obscure Mr. Kline's velvet Elvis painting
(c) To heat up the "sweet" rifle
(d) She's trying to burn down the house

4. What does Harv Kline say after the "sweet" rifle accidentally discharges?
(a) He curses
(b) "Take that..." (p. 95)
(c) "What--" (p. 95)
(d) "Bang!" (p. 95)

5. Which of the following does not describe the loading process used by John Byam to load the "sweet" rifle?
(a) He swaged out the greased patch
(b) He used a needle to clean out the touch hole
(c) He dabbed grease into the touch hole
(d) He used a greased patch

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Harv Kline's favorite time of year?

2. When does Richard Allen Mesinger die?

3. According to the novel, how long was Richard Allen Mesinger "supposed" to have lived?

4. When he is an infant, how does Richard Allen Mesington get Sissy to stop walking?

5. How does Richard Allen Mesington refer to the first bear he sees as an infant?

Short Essay Questions

1. How many people own the "sweet" rifle?

2. Is the "sweet" rifle a work of art?

3. Describe the early life of Richard Allen Mesinger .

4. How is Harv Kline characterized in the novel?

5. Was the "sweet" rifle fundamentally different from other rifles of the period?

6. What does Richard Allen Mesinger think about his neighbor Harv Kline's antique gun?

7. What message does the novel convey?

8. Tim Harrow owns the "sweet" rifle for a few days. He buys it, wraps it up in cloth, and trades it away a few days later. As a character, Harrow has no narrative function beyond transporting the rifle from point A to point B, just like Sarah, an editor, an antique dealer, and a gun collector. Yet the novel spends a significant portion of its space developing Harrow as a character. Why?

9. Describe the chain of events that leads to the rifle being above Harv Kline's fireplace.

10. The novel openly mocks Tim Harrow's personal philosophy that draws from firearms and American history, the United States Constitution, and Christianity. Do you think that these sources of information are suitable for mockery?

(see the answer keys)

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