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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. Which relative of Spud's interrupts the celebration in Courting Disaster?

2. Where is Gi from originally?

3. Who explains to Renton that he is quitting cold turkey in this chapter?

4. What did Billy and Mark most often fight over?

5. Who does not come back for Matty's funeral?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Renton interact with his relatives at Billy's wake?

2. How does Alison and Kelly bond with two lesbians in Feeling Free?

3. What surprise does Renton have when he wakes up in Gi's flat?

4. Describe Sick Boy's escapade in Deid Dugs.

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

6. How does Renton and Sharon's relationship change in Bang to Rites?

7. Why does Begbie become enraged in Trainspotting at Leith Central Station?

8. Why does Renton's father warn him in Bang to Rites?

9. What precautions does Begbie take after the job in Easy Money for the Professionals?

10. How does the drug deal in Station to Station go down?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay on the subject of nonparticipation in modern life. To what extent are all of the characters in Trainspotting choosing not to participate in life? What are they distinctly trying to avoid? What pain and disappointment are they wary of? How have the major characters in the novel coped to avoid maintaining ties with each other and family and to avoid having jobs?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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