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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 is Principal Nero's tie decorated with?

2. What does Nero tell the children the shack that they are going to live in is made out of?

3. What is it that Klaus likes to do best?

4. What happened to the old gym teacher and required them to find a replacement?

5. What word do the children use to describe the small animals in the shack?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is described about the Baudelaires past in the beginning of Chapter 2?

2. Describe what Violet is thinking about in Chapter 1 as they are walking towards the school for the first time.

3. Describe the story of Violet and Klaus going to the fair when their uncle entered a pig into the contest.

4. Describe the food being served in the cafeteria.

5. Describe the scene as the Baudelaire children are told to leave Nero's office in Chapter 2.

6. Why does Klaus not accuse Coach Genghis of being Count Olaf when Coach Genghis enters in Chapter 6?

7. What is the description of the Prufrock Prep that is given in Chapter 1 as the children and Mr. Poe look up at it?

8. Describe what is found once the children get into the shack in Chapter 3.

9. What does Carmelita Spats tell the Baudelaire children in the cafeteria in Chapter 6?

10. What is the explanation that the narrator gives the expression "Mountain out of a Molehill" in Chapter 3?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The Baudelaire children seem to have a happy moment or two in this story, as they have in the other stories, although the stories always end rather sadly.

1) Would the stories seem different if it had ended at a point before Count Olaf showed up and the children were content with the Quagmire children? Explain.

2) Could the story have ended here rather than with Count Olaf kidnapping the Quagmires? Why?

Essay Topic 2

Does reading this book make you want to read the previous in the series? The rest in the series? Explain the reasoning. Does the narrator's explanation that the Baudelaires' story doesn't end well affect your desire to read the other books? Why?

Essay Topic 3

Emotions run high in the story.

1) Explain the emotions and the role that they play in the story.

2) In what way do the Baudelaire children and the Quagmire children mirror real life children emotionally given the situation. In what ways are they different?

(see the answer keys)

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