View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what month do the novel’s events in the Sierra Nevada occur?

2. What is the name of Akira’s sister?

3. What sound does the novel assign to the fire as it consumes Nova’s house?

4. Which of the following bumps into Natalie in the Evanses’ home?

5. Which of the following had been cooking at Nova’s house?

Short Essay Questions

1. What belief about Nanuq does George ascribe to his grandmother?

2. What variation on a cliché does Akira think of at Nova’s house (1639)?

3. Why can Akira not risk staying in the pool at Nova’s house?

4. Why is Natalie worried about being driven into a canal?

5. Why do Elena and Natalie consider Beatriz family?

6. Why are full-grown sequoias called monarchs in the novel?

7. For what reason does Owen like the busy time of year in Churchill?

8. How do Natalie and the Evanses escape the Evans home?

9. How does Akira posit that the fire has gotten in front of them as she and Sue flee Nova’s house?

10. Why does Natalie scream at the storm?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Readerly attention focuses on the following passage: “‘Some people are always going to take without giving,’ [Patience] said. ‘I’m always going to give without taking’” (3504). Considering your own reading of the novel, what accounts for the attention paid to the passage? Why might it attract attention?

Essay Topic 2

Section divisions, their titles, and chapter numbering / division schema are all components of paratext. That is, they are not part of the text but are associated with it closely and affect its meaning. What significance, if any, accrues to the chapter-numbering scheme at work in Two Degrees? If there is significance, how does that significance manifest? If there is not, what in the novel supports the paratextual divisions that are in place?

Essay Topic 3

Readerly attention focuses on “the old saying about bears: ‘If it’s brown, lie down. If it’s black, fight back. If it’s white, say good night’” (395). Considering your own reading of the novel, what accounts for the attention paid to the passage? Why might it attract attention?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 616 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample