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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. Where does Jack's oldest daughter live?

2. From where did Mr. Gray operate his "business"?

3. Which character may end up flying to Mexico?

4. According to the video they watched in school, what happens when a rat is exposed to Nyodene D.?

5. Who was Jack's fourth wife?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Orest Mercator trying to do?

2. What happened to Cotsakis, Murray's rival in Elvis studies?

3. What does Winnie Richards think of Babette's condition and of the true purpose of Dylar?

4. How did Jack act during his appointment with Dr. Chakravarty?

5. How did the mock evacuation in Chapter 28 turn out?

6. According to Jack, why does this family not have to worry about evacuating or being affected?

7. What is the Law of Ruins Jack describes?

8. When the family does not want to cook, where do they go and what do they eat?

9. According to Heinrich, what are the effects of Nyodene Derivative?

10. When Jack asks Babette for Mr. Gray's real name, why does she refuse to tell him?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

While Jack is obsessed with a mass-murderer, he is afraid of his own death. Babette seems to think that Jack's biology and jealousy make him predestined to be homicidal. Interrogate her claims, based on evidence from the text. Why does Jack resort to violence? What does it have to do with his academic obsession with Hitler and maybe even his J.A.K. persona? How does DeLillo use German and associations with Germany to explore Jack's fear?

Essay Topic 2

Although many of the characters are unusual, Heinrich is one of the stranger characters. As a fourteen year old with a receding hairline, is he a good representation of the average American teenager? What are the things about Heinrich that you recognize in your peers and yourself? What things about him are different? Would you want to be friends with him, why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Describe the role that television plays in the life of the Gladney family. What is DeLillo trying to communicate about the way Americans watch television, or about what is produced and broadcast? Is this novel a critique of a "media generation"? Has television changed substantially since 1985? Would a new version of this novel include the internet in similar ways? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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