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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 the narrator say the music and the skating suggested to Darren and his friends?

2. Where was Jonathan returning the U.S. from, when he recalls being 16, at the beginning of the New York School chapter?

3. How did Adam’s friends exercise their aggression through language?

4. Why does Adam say he and his friends included Darren?

5. Which competitive events did Jane prefer?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what condition did Darren wake up at Clinton Lake?

2. How does the narrator characterize Darren as a roller skater?

3. What is the one situation that holds numerous times together in the “New York School” chapter?

4. What cause Jane to consciously redirect her thoughts about Adam’s behavior, and how did she do so?

5. How did Jonathan’s relationship with Sima begin?

6. What explanation does Jonathan give for why his parents and the diplomats drank so much in Taiwan?

7. What is the importance of the painted tissue box?

8. What motivated Darren to throw the cue ball at the girl?

9. How did Adam lose his L-D debate?

10. What was Jonathan’s relationship with Donna Selkie like, and what made is awkward?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When is The Topeka School most itself? What is its characteristic passage, or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?

Essay Topic 2

What is missing from this book? What should have been covered or presented that was not? What is the effect of this absence? Describe an element that ought to have been covered, and explain why it would have made the book stronger.

Essay Topic 3

What is the weakest part of this novel? Of the different weak sections, which gives you the most insight in to the author’s theory of what a novel is, and what it ought to do? How would you have suggested strengthening these weak passages?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,019 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample