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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. About whom does Ann ask Loomis?

2. What intrigues the man as he is making breakfast?

3. Why does Ann decide to hide from a visitor?

4. How long was the war?

5. Of what does Loomis say Ann's family probably died?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Ann become inspired to make a salad?

2. What does Ann hear Loomis saying in his dreams and what does Ann think about what she hears?

3. Why does Ann decide to go down to the farm yard and what does she discover?

4. Why is Mr. Loomis at Burden Creek when Ann returns from picking greens, and how does he think the Creek can be used?

5. Who is the stranger and what was his job before the war?

6. What happens that convinces Ann that the man knows nothing about farm life and what is her response?

7. How does Mr. Loomis seem later that evening, and what does Ann give him?

8. How does Loomis manage to survive on his long journey walking from New York?

9. What does the man do with his Geiger counter and then what terrible error does he make?

10. What does Ann decide to do to make cooking easier in the house?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When one reads any novel (or anything at all), one brings everything from one's own past and present to the novel and in how one responds to what s/he is reading. Discuss the following:

1. How influential do you think a reader's own emotions, education, ideas and experiences influence how the reader responds to a work of fiction?

2. What about your life do you think influences you in reading Z for Zachariah? How does it influence you?

3. Do you think there is only one interpretation for any book? Give a detailed discussion in your response.

4. Do you think fiction can precipitate change in a reader? Is the change usually temporary or long lasting? Discuss your response thoroughly.

Essay Topic 2

Ann makes the decision to observe the man who has decided to bathe in Burden Creek, which Ann knows is dead and probably poisoned either with radioactivity or some other by-product of the war. Discuss the following:

1. Does Ann make a wise decision to still not show herself when the man is entering the water?

2. Is Ann's decision not to run down and stop the man a lack of compassion? Kindness?

3. Would you have made the same decision that Ann makes? Why or why not?

4. Do you think Loomis is justified in being angry with Ann when he learns that she watched him enter the dangerous water and did nothing? Is he angry? Discuss the psychological/emotional dynamics of the situation.

5. Was Ann responsible for warning Loomis even if it reveals her presence? Do you have a responsibility to warn someone if you observe them doing something that could injure or kill them? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Ann watches the progress of the stranger and begins to worry that it might be someone who means her harm. Ann decides to hide all evidence of her existence by burying her garden and releasing her animals, then climbing up to a cave in the hills over her valley. Discuss the following:

1. Does it seem likely a fifteen-year-old girl would retreat from what is likely the only other human being in her surroundings for miles?

2. If you were Ann, would you adopt the same procedure to observe the person from afar for awhile? Do you think it would occur to you to do this?

3. How likely is it that the approaching human would harm another human who may be his/her only way to interact with someone else?

(see the answer keys)

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