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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 environment does the narrator say Darren’s camouflage pants helped him disappear into?

2. Who did Amber thank for dinner before Jane’s event?

3. How does Adam’s mother characterize the author of the purple cow lyric?

4. How does the narrator say people like Darren learn to differentiate themselves in this country?

5. What was the purple cow lyric used for?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the one situation that holds numerous times together in the “New York School” chapter?

2. What observations does Adam make about American culture when he is in the supermarket with his mother and grandmother?

3. What explanation does Jonathan give for why his parents and the diplomats drank so much in Taiwan?

4. What is the difference between extemp and Lincoln-Douglass debate?

5. Where did Darren walk to, and where did he end up, before he got a ride home?

6. What happened to Darren at Clinton Lake?

7. What is the importance of the purple cow?

8. In what ways did Adam and his friend shift their aggression into the realm of language?

9. What is the importance of the painted tissue box?

10. What aspect of Adam’s friends’ culture led to the melee that started with Reynolds and Darren?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is missing from this book? What should have been covered or presented that was not? What is the effect of this absence? Describe an element that ought to have been covered, and explain why it would have made the book stronger.

Essay Topic 2

Identify the most important plot points in The Topeka School. What is at stake in each of these moments? What possibilities do these moments present, and how are those possibilities channeled into specific actions or events? How does the plot chart its course among other alternative or possible plots?

Essay Topic 3

Evaluate the ending of The Topeka School. Does it ring true to you? Does it successfully resolve the problems and tensions that preceded it? What would you change, if anything? What are you left wishing for closure on, if anything?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,042 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample