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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. What does the narrator do with his shoe obsessively in the second essay?

2. Who stabs the author in the eye with a pencil?

3. What does the author's grandmother believe happened to her pet?

4. How much money is stolen from the author's father's dresser drawer in "True Detective"?

5. Who does the author's mother leave a video tape for once she's passed away?

Short Essay Questions

1. How was David's father brought up? How is his mother's cooking described?

2. How does "Next of Kin" become passed through the family? What finally happens to it?

3. What does David's mother insist he stop doing to the cat? Why?

4. How does David's father obtain golf tees? Why does he collect them?

5. What is the second household mystery in "True Detective"? What is the backlash the author finds himself in?

6. What does David do in order to clear his name in "True Detective"?

7. What does Lisa complain about in "Women's Open"? How does her father react?

8. Where is Ya Ya from, and how do she and David's mother feel about each other?

9. What does Miss Chestnut scold David for in "A Plague of Tics"?

10. What leads Ya Ya to need to be cared for? How does this lead to arguments between the author's parents?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Sedaris' use of satire. How does satire apply to a memoir piece? How does the author's structure reflect this style?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the theme of "Imagination versus Reality" in the essays of Naked. How does this theme carry across into different stories?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the author's fascination with hitchhiking in the essays. What is it about this activity that attracts him? What is his final conclusion regarding hitchhiking? Why?

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