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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. Who is introduced to the general public?

2. Why is traveling at night getting more dangerous?

3. Why does Tyler give Jason a heavier dose of medicine?

4. What is the morning's rising sun like after Tyler speaks to Jason?

5. For what does it appear Diane's religious cult is responsible?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where do Diane and Tyler go at the end of the book? What was the ultimate purpose of the Spin membrane?

2. What is in the envelope Tyler received after from Jason after he died? Why did Jason leave him the envelope?

3. Why is Jason dying?

4. What does Wun tell Tyler about a possible cure for Jason?

5. What does Simon say about his conflict between Diane and his beliefs?

6. How is Jason's health, what does he ask Tyler to do and how does Tyler respond?

7. What does Jason report to Tyler about the replicators a few years after they were launched?

8. What does Tyler do and how does he feel when men burn down Ina's clinic?

9. What happens in the summer with the sky and why does Simon call Tyler? How does Tyler respond?

10. What happens when Tyler rides along with Wun in a convoy that takes them to Perihelion?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Power and powerlessness are two themes that occur throughout Spin. Discuss one of the following:

Define personal power and discuss the concept fully as applied to two different characters.

Define powerlessness and discuss the concept fully as applied to two different characters.

Compare and contrast the way E. D. uses power to the way Jason uses power.

Essay Topic 2

Chapter one opens in the present but then flashes back to the past. This technique is done with a literary device called a flashback. There are a number of literary devices in this novel. Discuss one of the following:

Define "flashback" and give examples of it in the novel. What is the purpose of a flashback? How effective is the use of flashbacks in this story? What is a weakness of using flashbacks? Why do you think the author choices to use flashbacks in this story so often? Would this story be very different if told completely in chronological order? Why or why not? How would it change the plot?

Define metaphor and give examples of it in the novel. What is the purpose of a metaphor? How effective is the use of metaphors in this story? What is a weakness of using metaphors? Would this story be very different if there were no metaphors? Why or why not? How would it change the plot?

Choose one literary device that occurs in Spin and answer the following questions:

What is the purpose of the literary device? How effective is the use of the literary device in this story? What is a weakness of using this literary device? Would this story be very different if there were no occurrences of this literary device? Why or why not? How would it change the plot?

Essay Topic 3

Cultural norms typically change fairly slowly, though inexorbitably over generations. Sometimes, though, a cataclysmic event will compress change so that it occurs rapidly, sometimes seemingly overnight. Spin is just such an event that spends up change. Discuss the following:

What happens to cultural norms at the time Spin first appears?

Does changes in the culture seem accelerated? Why or why not?

How has the American culture changed over the years from the time Spin first arrives to when Tyler and Diane leave Earth?

(see the answer keys)

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