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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the name of the deputy that greets Holston in his office in Chapter 1?
(a) Deputy Nelson.
(b) Deputy Marnes.
(c) Deputy Jahns.
(d) Deputy Conner.

2. What word from Chapter 2 means cruel and vicious?
(a) Onomatopoeia.
(b) Savage.
(c) Intrinsic.
(d) Ablative.

3. In the conclusion of Chapter 3, the narrator states that Holston’s “wife was poking some great, overly full balloon with” what?
(a) “A needle.”
(b) “A broomstick.”
(c) “A sword.”
(d) “A dagger.”

4. When the mayor exits in the end of Chapter 2, she tells Holston, “And I won’t insult you by suggesting” what?
(a) “You get some sleep.”
(b) “You prepare yourself.”
(c) “You forget about her.”
(d) “You write a will.”

5. In describing the stairway in Chapter 1, the narrator says, “Each step was slightly bowed from” what?
(a) “The constant wearing by soldiers.”
(b) “The endless earthquakes.”
(c) “Generations of traffic.”
(d) "Tears of crocodiles."

6. Of Holston, the narrator says in Chapter 2, “He pretended not to care, to be disinterested in” what?
(a) “The when of the cleaning.”
(b) “The why of the cleaning.”
(c) “The how of the cleaning.”
(d) “The past of the cleaning.”

7. How long ago does the mayor say the uprising was in Chapter 2?
(a) A half of a century ago.
(b) Two decades ago.
(c) A century and a half ago.
(d) Six decades ago.

8. Holston is described in Chapter 1 as being determined to do what?
(a) Get revenge.
(b) Kill his boss.
(c) Find his wife.
(d) Die.

9. In Chapter 1, the narrator describes the “tight confines” of the stairway as “threading through the buried silo like a straw in a glass.” What literary technique is used in this sentence?
(a) Assonance.
(b) Denouement.
(c) Onomatopoeia.
(d) Simile.

10. What were the children doing “while Holston climbed to his death” in Chapter 1?
(a) “The children were playing.”
(b) “The children were weeping.”
(c) “The children were screaming.”
(d) “The children were shooting.”

11. The narrator describes each step in Chapter 1 as being “rounded down like a pouting lip.” What literary technique is used in this example?
(a) Simile.
(b) Alliteration.
(c) Literary allusion.
(d) Onomatopoeia.

12. What word used in Chapter 3 refers to the state of feeling or showing remorse?
(a) Articulate.
(b) Intrinsic.
(c) Vengeful.
(d) Regretful.

13. Allison says to Holston when he suggests that maybe she shouldn’t be doing this work, “If I don’t piece it together now, somebody else will at some point. You can’t put” what “back in the bottle”?
(a) “The poison.”
(b) “Pandora.”
(c) “The genie.”
(d) “The bee.”

14. How many years ago was Jack Brent put to cleaning, according to the narrator in Chapter 2?
(a) 8.
(b) 19.
(c) 13.
(d) 5.

15. What did Holston and his wife keep under the mattress to bring luck for having twins?
(a) 2 potatoes.
(b) 2 pennies.
(c) 2 dimes.
(d) 2 flowers.

Short Answer Questions

1. What word from Chapter 2 refers to a minute area of illumination on a display screen?

2. What is described as “the only moving feature on the landscape” in Chapter 2?

3. How many years ago does the narrator say Donna Parkins was put to cleaning in Chapter 2?

4. Whom does Holston see picking up scattered chalk and crayons from the stained tiles at the top of the stairs in Chapter 1?

5. What is Holston’s position of employment in the novel?

(see the answer keys)

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