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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. How does Nina respond to the commotion at the end of Growing Up in Public?

2. How is Billy connected to the character's in previous chapters?

3. Why does Begbie berate Stevie in Victory on New Year's Day?

4. In Na Na and Other Nazis, how does Spud feel since coming off heroin?

5. What practical joke does Begbie play on Renton in Inner Shitty?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens to the communal pot in Grieving and Mourning in Port Sunshine?

2. Why is Stevie sad on New Years?

3. In what state is Renton at the beginning of the chapter?

4. How do Renton and Sick Boy pick up girls in In Overdrive?

5. Why does Stevie have a wonderful New Years despite getting punched?

6. How does Renton meet Dianne?

7. How do the junkies react to the tragedy that occurs in It Goes Without Saying?

8. How do Spud and Renton commiserate at the club?

9. Describe the activities of the gang in Grieving and Mourning in Port Sunshine.

10. How is Begbie's home-life portrayed at the beginning of Inner Shitty?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Being that the world of Trainspotting is one of degradation and drugs, death is a prominent part of the events it portrays. Discuss three characters that die in the novel, and in an essay, analyze the significance of their deaths. How does each character die, and what are the underlying sociological causes? How do others react to this death? Is there anything to be learned from the loss of a life in this world?

Part 1) Baby Dawn

Part 2) Billy

Part 3) Matty

Essay Topic 2

Trainspotting's prose often resembles a series of amusing or pathetic anecdotes related over a pint at a pub. Write an essay discussing how Welsh subverts the frame of the pub story. How does he intermingle the prurient with the profound? In the structure of the novel, how do individual anecdotes add up to something more in concert together? What is the end result of these tales?

Essay Topic 3

In his quest for sobriety, Renton faces a number of obstacles, mostly of his own creation. In an essay, chart Renton's character arc in the novel. How does he begin the novel, and how does he end it? What tragedies and challenges meet him over the course of the narrative? What losses does he suffer, and what does he learn from this suffering?

(see the answer keys)

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