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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. As an adult, the narrator lives in what type of dwelling?

2. When the narrator emerges from the bathroom after preparing for his date with Josie, his face is covered with what?

3. How does the Old Man react to the news that the narrator has asked Max Bigelow's daughter out on a date?

4. By the end of the formal dance, the narrator says that flowers are wilted, jackets are limp, and what else?

5. The Bigelow family's chauffeur drives Daphne and the narrator to the Orpheum in what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens to the adult narrator's fire chief hat?

2. Describe how the narrator prepares for his date with Daphne.

3. How does the narrator feel after looking through his box of childhood treasures?

4. How does the narrator's family react when he says that he's asked Daphne Bigelow out on a date?

5. Why does the narrator grow more and more uncomfortable at the party with Josephine?

6. With the Bumpuses long gone, who finally moves in next door to the Shepherds?

7. Why doesn't the narrator ask Daphne Bigelow to the prom?

8. What impression does the narrator make on Mr. Bigelow, Daphne's dad?

9. What is the Wimpy Doll?

10. Describe the narrator's experience as he waits for Josephine to finish getting ready for their date.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain how the author uses the following literary tools to make a point or accentuate the humorous and ridiculous aspects of a situation:

a. exaggeration

b. contrast

Cite at least two examples from the book to support your explanations.

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast the narrator's expectations of his date with Josie and the reality of how the date turns out. What lessons does he learn through this experience? How does he behave after this date? What mistakes will he probably not make again?

Essay Topic 3

The book's time line covers the narrator's childhood and teen years. How does the narrator change, develop, and grow from the beginning to the end of the book? In what ways do the stories evolve? In what instances does the author seem to act about the same as a teenager as he did as a child?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 975 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample