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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 is "Grand Opera?"

2. What is Rod doing, in the final scene in the final chapter of "Tunnel in the Sky?"

3. How is the first part of Chapter 11 different from the rest of the novel?

4. The title of Chapter 12 is a quote from which character?

5. What is the new name given to the settlement, as mentioned early in Chapter 14?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Rod and Caroline clash the first time they try to hunt together?

2. Why, according to Caroline, is Carmen unable to relocate to a new place?

3. Who stands up for Bob and Carmen during their wedding ceremony?

4. Why does Rod banish Jock and his friends, four older boys, from the colony?

5. During a square dance in Chapter 14, what do almost all of the students say they would do if rescuers come?

6. In Chapter 9 how does Grant use the wedding of Bob and Carmen to his advantage?

7. At the end of the novel, what is Rod doing?

8. Where does Rod think the students should move their colony?

9. Early in Chapter 8, how is Jack injured?

10. What does Deacon Matson finally define as a stobor?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the family dynamics of the Walker family, as depicted early in the novel. Why do Rod's parents conceal from him the fact that Rod's father is terminally ill and the fact that both of Rod's parents plan to be frozen for twenty years in the hope that a cure will be found? How do the family dynamics change by the final chapter, as a result of Rod's new life experiences and the passage of time?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the main character's changing perception of "stobor" throughout the novel. What, ultimately, is a "stobor?" Why should everyone watch out for "stobor?"

Essay Topic 3

Compare and contrast the governmental styles of Rod Walker and Grant Cowper. How are the two ultimately able to work together, despite their differences? What does this say about Heinlein's attitudes toward democracy and dictatorship, cooperation and autonomy?

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