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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 does Rat finally reveal to the reader about the source of the money he has saved up for a fishing boat?

2. Who do the police mention in their warning to Gardo when they are yelling after the boys during their escape from the room above the laundry?

3. What does Rat have to do to Raphael in order to get him to unfreeze and to escape out of the roof hatch when the police come?

4. What does Rat do to Raphael's appearance in order to make him harder for the police to recognize?

5. What does Gardo see in Marco's eyes when he first sees him during their meeting?

Short Essay Questions

1. What method do Raphael, Gardo, and Rat use in order to evade the police after they leap from rooftop to rooftop in an attempt to escape?

2. According to Mohun in his diary printed in The Daily Star newspaper, what might Senator Zapanta do to him in retaliation for his accusations?

3. When the boys hide inside a small room within a tenement building, who first detects approaching danger and leads the other two boys out through the hole in the roof to safety?

4. When Gardo meets with the prison guard named Marco in order to pay a bribe for Gabriel Olondriz's Bible, how does Marco betray Gardo and how does Gardo then escape?

5. When Raphael and Gardo use Gabriel Olondriz's Bible in order to decipher the code included within the letter the boys had found within the train station locker, why is Rat unable to help them decipher the message and how does this inability add to the difference between him and the other two boys?

6. What features of the prison result in Olivia's pronouncement of the place as a "hell" (100)?

7. How does Rat describe his relationship with Father Juilliard and how does this relationship affect Rat's decision to steal money from the school's safe?

8. What are the three skills that Rat says he is the best at in life?

9. Why does Gardo interrupt Olivia's narration of the jail visit with his own narration in Part 3, Chapter 6?

10. In what way does Gabriel Olondriz say that he had been betrayed by his legal defense team?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze the boys' decision to put part of the six million dollars into backpacks in order to throw them randomly into the dump for others to find. Why do they make that decision and how do you know? Is their action just? Does it rectify the wrongs visited upon the people by Senator Zapanta? Back up your points with quotes from the novel.

Essay Topic 2

The novel is littered with the use of sensory details throughout the narrative. Discuss the author's purpose in including the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and tactile sensations of those living within the dumpsite community of Behala. Include plenty of concrete details from the novel to support your claims.

Essay Topic 3

Analyze the author's message regarding perseverance in the novel Trash. State a clear and specific claim regarding this topic and support your claim using concrete details from the novel.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,313 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample