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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. The historian is chosen based on what criteria?

2. Who protests and tries to turn down the job when nominated to be the group's first mayor in Chapter 8?

3. In Chapter 16, after his return home, Rod's inability to adjust to normal life leads him to seek advice from whom?

4. In Chapter 14 when the survivors discuss what they would do if rescue finally comes, who is the only person to say he would return to Terra?

5. What change had been made to guard duty in Rod's absence, as described in Chapter 13?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. In Chapter 10, why is Caroline appointed historian for the settlement?

3. Why don't students want to relocate to the caves Rod and Roy discovered?

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

5. Why do Bob and Carmen ask to wait a day when their friends consider abandoning Grant's rule and forming a new colony?

6. Why are Rod and Roy slow to return from their expedition?

7. When rescuers arrive, who is the only student who refuses to return home?

8. What demands does Rod make of Grant in Chapter 10, before agreeing to serve as his city manager?

9. What happens to Grant during the dopey joes' aggressive period?

10. What vote do the students make while Rod is recovering from the dopey joe attack?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

How does Robert A. Heinlein explain the technology involved in Ramsbotham Gates? How did the personality of the inventor, Dr. Jesse Evelyn Ramsbotham, as described in Chapter 2, lead to the invention of tunnel travel? How did the invention of tunnel travel transform the world of "Tunnel in the Sky?"

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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