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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where does Holston arrive in a sprint in the opening of Chapter 5?
(a) The holding cell.
(b) The cafeteria.
(c) The school bus.
(d) The library.

2. Upon observing his wife’s state in Chapter 5, Holston considers, “There was nothing left for it but to lock her up, even as he wanted nothing else but room enough to” do what?
(a) “Weep.”
(b) “Think things through.”
(c) “Scream.”
(d) “Beat the walls.”

3. What word from Chapter 4 refers to the state of disrepair or ruin as a result of age or neglect?
(a) Dilapidated.
(b) Intrinsic.
(c) Ablative.
(d) Corrupted.

4. What word from Chapter 5 refers to a steel reinforcing rod in concrete?
(a) Onomatopoeia.
(b) Bunker.
(c) Rebar.
(d) Ablation.

5. How are the curtains described in Chapter 6 that cover the interior of the airlock?
(a) “Sacrificial plastic curtains.”
(b) “Heavy, dark draperies.”
(c) “Pristine floral curtains.”
(d) “Black, sooty curtains.”

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Holston recall Allison using to clean with during her cleaning in Chapter 4?

2. What color overwhelms the surroundings of the world outside the silo when Holston exits for his cleaning in Chapter 6?

3. What word from Chapter 4 means incapable of producing any useful result, or pointless?

4. As Holston is about to exit the airlock for his cleaning, the narrator notes that the airlock area will be scrubbed clean and ready for the next cleaning by what time in Chapter 6?

5. What word from Chapter 4 refers to a habitual gesture of way of speaking or behaving?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the setting and time frame established in the opening of Chapter 6? What is Holston doing in the beginning of the chapter?

2. What response does Holston have when Nelson asks him at the end of Chapter 4, “You okay? Anything too tight?”

3. What does Holston do after performing the cleaning duty in Chapter 6?

4. What is the setting and time frame of Chapter 5? What is Holston doing in the opening of the chapter?

5. Why does Holston make the decision to keep on his helmet as he departs in Chapter 6?

6. What surroundings does Holston find himself after exiting the silo in Chapter 6?

7. What is Nelson’s position in the story? What does he tell Holston in the beginning of Chapter 4?

8. What does Allison initially say to Holston when she begins to talk in the holding cell in Chapter 5?

9. What conclusions Holston make upon taking in the surroundings of the outer world in Chapter 6?

10. How is Allison’s death described in Chapter 4?

(see the answer keys)

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