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. Where did the author attend college and help a friend with a studen film?

2. How many miles did the author and Weston travel on their first day into the journey?

3. What is Chapter 7's title?

4. Where was the author living when he describes having started a gay Bible group in Chapter 8?

5. At about what elevation is Mexico City, according to the author in Chapter 8?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the author describe his religious background?

2. What information does the author relate about the Mayan calendar in Chapter 8?

3. How does the young brain differ from the adult brain, according to the author in the Prologue?

4. What prompted the author to take his journey across the Americas?

5. How did the author self-protect as he grew up?

6. What paradox does the author describe in growing up in the Prologue?

7. What did the author see and learn in Zitácuaro?

8. Who wrote the quote that opens the Prologue, and what does this quote mean?

9. Where did the author work before he began his journey?

10. How does the author describe his name and its history in the Prologue?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What led Weston to depart from the journey? Did the author provide foreshadowing for this event? How did Weston's departure from the journey change the narrative? How did it influence the mood and themes of the work?

Essay Topic 2

Describe and discuss the history of the Incan Empire. When were the Incans vanquished? By whom where they conquered? What remains of the Incas?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the theme of sexuality in To Shake the Sleeping Self. How does the author identify in terms of sexual preference? What history does he relate regarding his sexuality? How do his perceptions of sexuality change in the course of the narrative?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 689 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample