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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 people become like when they change into bicycles?

2. What did MacCruiskeen decide to put in the box?

3. Who does Divney suggest he and narrator rob and murder?

4. What did the narrator's mother run?

5. What is Mathers' birth color?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Pluck tell the narrator about Fox?

2. What does Pluck say about his atom theory?

3. Why is MacCruiskeen's piano special?

4. What does Pluck say bicycles do during bad weather?

5. How do people change into bicycles and bicycles change into people?

6. Why does Pluck think Gilaney is lecherous?

7. What is de Selby's opinion on houses?

8. How does Pluck respond to the narrator's claim someone has stolen his gold watch?

9. Why does the narrator think it is not a good idea to say no to everything?

10. How does the narrator describe the boxes MacCruiskeen shows him?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine the book's chronological setting.

1. What were the main concerns during the 1940s? How does the author express these concerns?

2. How would the author change the book if it was set in today's society?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss elements of the narrative structure: Exposition, conflict, complication, climax, resolution and conclusion. Do all the elements make for a logical and linear story? How does the story's structure express the book's themes?

Essay Topic 3

What is the novel's premise? Why are premises are so important to a story?

(see the answer keys)

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