View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the narrator say Holston and his wife had “invited into their lives” in Chapter 1?
(a) Superstition.
(b) Religion.
(c) Corruption.
(d) Revenge.

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

3. The narrator says of Holston in Chapter 1, “And he thought, not for the first time, that neither life nor staircase had been meant for” what?
(a) “Walking upon.”
(b) “Such an existence.”
(c) “The final days.”
(d) “The footprints of babes.”

4. The narrator states in Chapter 1, “That always amazed [Holston]: how centuries of bare palms and shuffling feet could wear down” what?
(a) “Solid steel.”
(b) “Solid iron.”
(c) “Solid earth.”
(d) “Solid concrete.”

5. 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) Simile.
(c) Denouement.
(d) Onomatopoeia.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. The narrator describes the sky in Chapter 2 as “the same dull gray of” what?

3. Holston tells Allison in Chapter 3, “If I’ve learned one thing from my job, it’s that no crime or crazy mob is ever all that” what?

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

5. The narrator describes each step in Chapter 1 as being “rounded down like a pouting lip.” What literary technique is used in this example?

Short Essay Questions

1. From what narrative point of view is the story related? Is the narrative told in the past, present, or future tense?

2. Where does the protagonist of the novel live? How is the arrangement of this setting described in Chapter 1?

3. What “traitorous” notion does Allison present as a reason for the servers being wiped in Chapter 3?

4. What does Holston notice about the view from the holding room in the beginning of Chapter 2?

5. How is Holston said to relate to his memories of childhood in Chapter 1?

6. How is the act of “cleaning” defined in the novel?

7. What is the principle setting of Wool? In what time period does the story take place?

8. What is the protagonist doing when he is first introduced in Chapter 1?

9. What is the significance of the lottery ticket that Holston is said to always carry with him in Chapter 1?

10. How does Holston compare the images from the screens to the children’s books that survived the uprising in Chapter 2?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 889 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample