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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 Todbaum tell Journeyman the portal he used to get into the vessel also acted as?

2. What was Kormentz's crime?

3. Who accompanies Todbaum as he rides into Tinderwick?

4. What is the name of Todbaum's and Journeyman's futuristic script?

5. In Chapter 1, what does the sign warn visitors on the road about?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do the people of Tinderwick gather around Todbaum's machine, apart from the free coffee he distributes?

2. What was the result of The Arrest?

3. Why does Maddy get so angry with Journeyman several months after The Arrest, as described in the section "Loss"?

4. What part of the Blue Streak is particularly popular with the townspeople of Tinderwick, including, grudgingly, Journeyman?

5. How does Journeyman feel about the woman who suddenly moves into the town library?

6. What is Journeyman's job in Tinderwick and how does he feel about the job?

7. What does Journeyman think of the machine Todbaum arrives to Tinderwick in?

8. How did Journeyman come to be a part of the community in Tinderwick?

9. In Part II, how did Maddy feel about what happened between her and Todbaum at the Starlet apartments all those years past?

10. What does Eke tell Journeyman in the section titled An Old Friend that absolutely shocks Journeyman?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why is the Lake of Tiredness so named, and what do you think the Lake of Tiredness - and its one resident, Jerome Kormentz, symbolize? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your answers.

Essay Topic 2

What is your understanding of the event called The Arrest? What do you think are some reasons Lethem keeps the causes and consequences of The Arrest so generally vague, and how does this vagueness affect the reader's experience of this novel? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your answers.

Essay Topic 3

What do you think Lethem is trying to convey to the reader through the characters of Eke and Walt, and their absconding from the Cordon and eventually to Quarry Island? Write an essay explaining your answers.

(see the answer keys)

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