View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Norm say he has spent half his life studying to the nurse in the hospice care facility in 2016?

2. According to Sorry, how many people in the West Bank have Jordanian passports?

3. What kind of activist does Rob claim to be when Penny first meets him at the Nicotine house?

4. How much younger is Amalia than her eldest stepson?

5. What is Penny's father reheating at the barbecue pit when Penny approaches him in the beginning of the novel?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the relationship like between Matt and Penny?

2. What are Norm's circumstances in 2016? Where is he?

3. How is Penny's Manhattan apartment described? Why is she forced to vacate it?

4. Why does Penny keep her family associations with Nicotine secret when she first meets the inhabitants?

5. Why is Norm's childhood home called "Nicotine"?

6. What is in the vacant bedroom across from Sorry's room? What is its history?

7. What happens when Norm encounters Schubert in 2016? How does Penny interpret this action?

8. What are Penny's impressions when she goes to the Stayfree house with Sorry for a potluck?

9. Who are the inhabitants at Nicotine when Penny first visits?

10. Where is the opening scene of the novel set? What is the significance of this setting?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe and discuss the different squatter houses under the umbrella of the CHA. What is the theme of each house? What are the conditions of each house? Who are the houses' inhabitants?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the conflict between Matt and the residents of Nicotine that plays out when Matt breaks into the front door. What characters are involved in a physical dispute? How does it play out? What are the repercussions of this event?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the importance of setting in Nicotine. Where does the main bulk of the novel take place? What is significant about this setting? How do the different settings in the story compare with one another? What moods do they evoke?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 818 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample