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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 far does the Hab’s nav beacon reach?

2. When there is too much oxygen, to what temperature does the regulator cool it?

3. What type of music did Johanssen bring to listen to?

4. Whose suit does Mark use to store water?

5. Of all the people who had stepped out on Mars, what number was Mark?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Mindy believe that Watney is alive?

2. On Sol 16, in what context does Mark think about his family?

3. Why is the weak point of a lander the battery?

4. Why does a portion of the MAV remain and why is it useful?

5. Why does Vankat want satellite time in Chapter 6?

6. What plan does Jack Trevor come up with to help communicate with Mark?

7. What is Mindy Park’s job in Chapter 6?

8. What were twenty-three of the most terrifying minutes of Mark’s life?

9. What is Dr. Shields’ opinion of Watney?

10. What are the pros and cons of having hydrazine available?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Mark uses ASCII to communicate with NASA at first. How does Mark present his first message to NASA? Why doesn’t he just write out his messages? Why does he decide to use ASCII to communicate?

Essay Topic 2

In Chapter 5, Mark causes an explosion. What is Mark doing at the time of the explosion? Had he realized before the incident that the explosion might happen? What was damaged in the explosion? Was there anything that couldn’t be replaced or fixed?

Essay Topic 3

In the novel, some characters are more thoroughly described than others. Who are some characters that are merely named in passing or have a minor role in the novel? What is the importance of these flat characters to the story line? In what way do these characters make the main characters more colorful or interesting? When there is conflict, what type of role do these flat characters play?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 801 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample