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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. How many people attend the premiere reading of the poem?

2. What happens in Chapter 7 when Shawn and his father are right in front of the camera?

3. What gives Shawn a chill as his father is leaving his classroom after filming footage for the PBS Special?

4. In Chapter 7, why is it necessary to file an incident report?

5. How many talk shows does Sydney appear on because of the poem?

Short Essay Questions

1. What kinds of things is Shawn able to remember using his gift?

2. Why does Shawn think that it is cool to live in Seattle?

3. How does Shawn describe his father?

4. What movements does Shawn's body make and what controls them?

5. What does the encounter with the crow reveal to Shawn's father, and what thought occurs to him?

6. Why does Shawn say that he has looked into death's eyes?

7. What "techniques of making contact" does Shawn mention have not been tried on him?

8. What is Shawn's out-of-body experience like while his father is in the classroom shooting video with a cameraman?

9. How does Shawn describe his experience with grand mal seizures as a child?

10. What does Cindy do when the dog is hit by a car?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Shawn mentions that he actually enjoys the weird irony that he is the smartest person in his class and yet he is considered the most ineducable. Irony seems to be a theme in Stuck in Neutral.

Part 1) Identify five instances of irony within Stuck in Neutral. Explain why these instances can be considered ironic. Identify each instance by the type of irony: verbal, situational, or dramatic?

Part 2) What is the function of irony within the novel? What is the author trying to get across to the reader by the use of irony? Is there a pattern? To support the argument, use examples from the novel.

Essay Topic 2

Point of view in a novel allows the reader to experience the story. In Stuck in Neutral, the story is told from the point of view of how many characters?

Part 1) Why is the story told this way? What are the limitations and advantages of having this many point of view characters? Why is it necessary to tell this particular story in this way?

Part 2) How would the story have been different if the story was told from the point of view of multiple characters, or from the point of view of another character? Make a list of at least three ways the story would have been different and present it to the class.

Essay Topic 3

Cindy often has sleepovers and Shawn's reaction to his sister's friends shows that in some ways he is a typical teenage boy.

Part 1) How does his sister and her friends regard Shawn? How do they think of him? How do they react to him and behave around him?

Part 2) How does Shawn normally react to his sister's friends? How does he react to Ally? Does he judge her behavior by the same standards as he uses for other girls? Why or why not?

Part 3) Why does Shawn think that Ally is "so perfect!"? Is he reacting like a normal teenage boy, or is something else at play here? How does his reaction to Ally help or hinder the plot?

(see the answer keys)

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