Long Way Down

Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.

Part 1: “Untitled”

Reading Check

1. What has happened to Shawn at the beginning of this story?

2. Why doesn’t Will cry when he is sad?

3. What is in Shawn’s middle drawer?

4. Why is Will interested in finding Riggs?

Multiple Choice

1. Why is it tragic that Will and Tony wait “like they always do” when shots are fired (Part 1, Page 11)?

A) because this time it is an unusual circumstance

B) because it implies that this is an everyday occurrence in their lives

C) because it prevents Will from seeing what actually happened

D) because it means Will cannot retaliate immediately

2. What is significant about Shawn’s favorite rappers, Tupac and Biggie?

A) They were both from the inner city.

B) They both died as a result of gang-related feuding.

C) They both acted, which was Shawn’s dream.

D) They both sang about following The Rules.

3. What does the Penny Drop symbolize?

A) Shawn’s inability to control his life

B) the way gang warfare interferes with childhood

C) how difficult it is for someone in an inner-city neighborhood to make it out safely

D) Will and Shawn’s disagreement about how to act

4. What do The Rules codify and represent?

A) the cycle of violence and control that gangs have over the neighborhood

B) the way an authoritarian police force diminishes public trust

C) the lessons of Will and Shawn’s father

D) a road map for escaping gang violence

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What are The Rules that Will outlines?

2. Why does Will say that gunshots make people blind and deaf?

3. How is Will’s mother’s eczema symbolic of her life as a whole?

4.  What is significant about Will and Shawn trapping the lightning bugs inside a jar?

Part 2: “7” and Part 3: “6”

Reading Check

1. Why does Will get on the elevator?

2. Who does Will meet first in the elevator?

3. Who is Dani?

4. What does Dani ask Will that makes him doubt his plan?

Multiple Choice

1. What does Will think about the lobby button being signified with an L?

A) According to Will, it stands for “loser.”

B) Will thinks it’s out of place among the numbers.

C) Will recognizes that it’s the same way he used to shape his hand to make a fake gun.

D) Will thinks there’s no way to be number 1 where he lives.

2. Why does Buck say he is looking for Will?

A) to convince Will to take revenge

B) to remind Will of The Rules

C) to check on his gun

D) to stop Will from doing what he’s about to do

3. What does Buck think about Will’s plan?

A) He doesn’t have it in him.

B) It will fail.

C)He doesn’t understand the consequences.

D) It won’t make anything better.

4. When does Shawn teach Will Rule No. 1?

A) when their father leaves

B) when Will is sad about their mother

C) after Buck is killed

D) after Dani is killed

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is Buck trying to convince Will to do?

2. Why are cigarettes symbolic in these chapters?

3. Why is it significant that Will says he would flirt by doing his “best impression of Shawn, / which was / his best impression of Buck.” (Part 3, Page 117)

4. What does the statement Will makes that “the world / don’t wanna see / no kids” say about his view of the world (Part 3, Page 134)?

Part 4: “5” and Part 5: “4”

Reading Check

1. Who are the two people who enter the elevator in parts 4 and 5 of the book?

2. Why hasn’t Will’s father, Mikey, been in his life?

3. What does Mikey admit about the man he shot?

4. What does Mikey do to Will that shocks and scares him?

Multiple Choice

1. Why does Uncle Mark start selling drugs?

A) to impress a girl

B) to pay for a movie shoot

C) to pay back a debt

D) to replace a camera

2. How did Will’s mother and father meet?

A) They met through Uncle Mark’s filmmaking.

B) They were high school sweethearts.

C) They worked together at a diner.

D) They met at basketball camp.

3. What is the nighttime that Will claims got into his father?

A) a metaphor for being a product of his environment

B) a metaphor for his rage

C) a metaphor for not being there for his family

D) a metaphor for his lack of education

4. What is significant about Mikey saying that Gee “had to be” the man who killed Mikey (Part 5, Page 220)?

A) Will knows this kind of logic is wrong and dangerous.

B) Will didn’t think his father was capable of being so cold.

C) Will is using the same reasoning to justify his plan.

D) Will knows it’s a lie.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Uncle Mark force Will to do?

2. What does Uncle Mark mean when he says “It’s never the end” (Part 4, Page 192)?

3. When Will meets his father, his sadness turns to anger; how is this a consequence of his belief system?

4. Why is the symbolic image in “Random Thought No. 4” of kids standing on their fathers’ feet and being walked backwards significant (Part 5, Page 222)?

Part 6: “3” and Part 7: “2”

Reading Check

1. Who is Frick?

2. Where is the missing bullet from Shawn’s gun?

3. Who is the last person to get on the elevator?

4. How does the last person to get on the elevator break The Rules?

Multiple Choice

1. Why does Will say that Buck is two-sided?

A) because he could be nice or mean at a moment’s notice

B) because he lied to people’s faces all the time

C) because of the two men who raised him

D) because no one knew how tender he was in private

2. Why does Frick try to rob Buck?

A) because Buck is rich

B) because it is part of his gang initiation

C) because he sees him as an easy target

D) because he’s jealous of Buck’s relationship with a girl

3. What word does Will not know an anagram for?

A) RULES

B) POSER

C) TARGET

D) VICTIM

4. What does Frick reveal about Riggs?

A) Frick doesn’t know Riggs.

B) Frick and Riggs are brothers.

C) Riggs didn’t kill Shawn.

D) Riggs shot the wrong person when he shot Shawn.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why do Buck and Frick hold no anger toward each other?

2. Why does Will think mentioning his mother’s eczema is a “dumb thing to say” (Part 6, Page 255)?

3. What does Will realize about the cause of Shawn’s death that puts doubt in his plan?

4. Why is the final question of the book—“You Coming?”—an ambiguous one (Part 7, Page 306)?