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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 does Rico receive a letter from?

2. What does Jenkins wonder about Zim?

3. What does MI stand for?

4. What does Hendrick question?

5. What kind of people is the room that Rico lands in full of?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Frankel make Hendrick's punishment so light?

2. What is Rico's responsibility in Chapter 6?

3. Describe Sergeant Zim.

4. How do the MIs respond to the loss of Breckenbridge?

5. How does Zim respond to Hendrick's criticism of him?

6. In what way does the army make things tough for the recruits?

7. Describe the three types of suits.

8. Describe the release of the capsules in Chapter 1.

9. What does a soldier use his facial muscles for inside a power suit?

10. What does Rico's father want him to do instead of the army?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Is Heinlein promoting the use of women in warfare? Why does he not have women fighting on the ground? Do the students agree that women and men are better at different jobs such as piloting and fighting? What kind of reaction do you think Heinlein would have gotten in the fifties in such a book if he had portrayed women as being flogged?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the values of 1950s America.

1) Why was spirituality finding oneself such an issue during this time?

2) In what ways are the characters' negative characteristics a product of their time? Do you think America was going through a transitional phase in the fifties? What significant changes do you think occurred during this period?

3) Does modern society share any values with fifties America?

Essay Topic 3

Starship Troopers is written in the first person and with Rico as narrator. Why do you think Heinlein chose to write the story in the first person? How do you think the meaning of the story would have changed if it was written in the third person? What difference does it make to the story that Heinlein is one of the characters?

(see the answer keys)

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