View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Murderers, what music could the boys hear from their vantage point?

2. Who does Connie meet in the drive-in restaurant at night?

3. What did Evie envy about Lydia?

4. What does the priest say to his mother when he sees her?

5. In his dream, what does the priest see the soldier do?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Daniel not want the narrator of Home to see his back?

2. What questions does Danica ask Jane's father near the end of the train trip, and how does he respond?

3. In Rules of the Game, what is Meimei's mother's "chang"?

4. Before she dies, what story does Margaret tell Evie and Lydia that change their lives?

5. In the short story Train, who are the two little girls on the train, how old are they, and where are they going?

6. In Moonwalk, who is Margaret Many Wounds and what is happening to her as the story opens? Who is taking care of her?

7. In the story Rules of the Game, who is Lau Fo?

8. What inspiration does Gunther in Men Under Water get about his next screenplay after visiting Acid Rain? Who does he find waiting for him at his home when he and the narrator pull up to his house?

9. In the story Dog Heaven, who is Sparky Smith and what game does he and the narrator play together?

10. In the story Daddy Garbage, how does Strayhorn discover the baby in the box?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Earl, in Rock Springs, tries to change his life by stealing a car and leaving Montana with his girlfriend and his daughter. How does the author use foreshadowing to prepare the reader for Earl's failed attempt at this new life? How does the last paragraph of the story foreshadow the rest of Earl's life?

Essay Topic 2

In his story The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien differentials between the physical things the soldiers carried on their backs and those they carry in their hearts and minds. Contrast and compare the physical and emotional things the men carried and how each affect a soldier.

Essay Topic 3

Alcohol is a theme in some of the stories in this collection. Compare the drinking and the effect drinking has on these characters and their close relationships: Walter in All The Way To Flagstaff, Arizona; Willi Vorig in Talk of Heroes, and Lenny in Tall Tales From the Mekong Delta.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,081 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample