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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does George ask his family to get when he first rises in bed in the beginning of the novel?
(a) Plaster.
(b) A doctor.
(c) A car.
(d) An ambulance.

2. What has the Morrells' curing shed been converted into when George runs away in Chapter 2?
(a) A tool shed.
(b) A log cabin.
(c) A cemetery.
(d) A tree house.

3. What month is it when Howard leaves his family in Chapter 2?
(a) March.
(b) January.
(c) September.
(d) July.

4. Where has George's hospital bed been placed in the beginning of the novel?
(a) In the living room.
(b) In Charlie's bedroom.
(c) In the attic.
(d) In George's bedroom.

5. What month is it every year when Howard meets with the hermit in Chapter 1?
(a) July.
(b) September.
(c) August.
(d) May.

Short Answer Questions

1. How would you describe the main narrative perspective of Tinkers?

2. What ailment does Howard suffer from?

3. The narrator says of Kathleen in Chapter 2, "Only her face is visible above the top of the bedcovers. It glows like a pale egg." What literary device is used in this example?

4. Of Kathleen's strict demeanor, the narrator says in Chapter 2, "She could not live with herself if she allowed herself to believe that she treated her own this way because she felt no more connected to them than she would to" what?

5. Where was George's cancer for which he first underwent radiation therapy?

Short Essay Questions

1. What memories of George's are described "one hundred and sixty-eight hours" before George's death in Chapter 1?

2. What does George witness as he watches the doctor talking with his mother from the truck in Chapter 2, Part 2?

3. When is the only occurrence when George witnesses firsthand one of his father's seizures?

4. How does the author go about illustrating the opposite natures of George and Howard in Chapter 2?

5. How does Howard find George after he's run away from home in Chapter 2, Part 2? What are his thoughts upon finding his son?

6. Who is George's father in the narrative? What did George's father do for a living?

7. How would you describe George's relationship to animals and nature based upon his actions in Chapter 2?

8. How is George's condition described in the beginning of Chapter 1? Where is George located, and what does he ask for when he first awakens?

9. How does the narrator describe George's attempt to make a memoir by cassette tape in Chapter 1?

10. How would you compare the imagery of Howard's home and George's home in the novel?

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