Oryx and Crake

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-3

Reading Check

1. To whom does Snowman pretend to talk through his broken watch?

2. Who does Snowman say is giving him the silent treatment?

3. Who was Snowman before he became Snowman?

4. What does Jimmy’s father do for a living?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What do readers know about the world in which Snowman lives?

2. How are Ramona and Jimmy’s mother different?

3. How would you characterize the weather in Snowman’s world?

4. What does the presence of wolvogs, pigoons, and bobkittens tell you about the novel’s setting?

Paired Resource

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” Parts I-IV, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

• Snowman quotes lines from this poem at the beginning of the section titled “Voice.” The poem is about a mariner who commits a sin against nature and then must live out his days in penance.
• Like the novel, the poem includes the theme of Ethics.
• Compare the mariner’s situation in the first four parts of the poem to Snowman’s.

Chapters 4-6

Reading Check

1. What is in the letter that Jimmy finds when he comes home from school one day?

2.