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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 do people like to lean against when they become bikes?

2. Who is the only person who can hear the piano's music?

3. What do bicycles lean against in people's houses?

4. What theory does Pluck explain to the narrator?

5. What did the boy first consider when de Selby confused him with insolvable problems?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Pluck assume about the narrator because he has no name?

2. What does de Selby say about movement?

3. What does de Selby say about mirrors?

4. Where does Pluck find the bicycle and all its parts?

5. What does Mathers tells the narrator about the policeman at the police barracks?

6. What does Mathers tell the narrator about wind?

7. How do people change into bicycles and bicycles change into people?

8. How does the narrator perplex Sergeant Pluck?

9. What does Mathers say to the narrator?

10. Why does the narrator think it is not a good idea to say no to everything?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What problems does the narrator's generation face? How are the problems for the narrator's generation different from the problems his father's generation face? Identify and discuss a significant problem facing your generation.

Essay Topic 2

Examine the book's chronological setting.

1. What were the main concerns during the 1940s? How does the author express these concerns?

2. How would the author change the book if it was set in today's society?

Essay Topic 3

What are the main turning points of the book? How does O'Brien develop his story to get to each turning point? What happens to the story after a major turning point?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 630 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample