"The Hitch Hiker"

Ronald Adams’s opening dialogue (paragraph 3) mainly tells listeners that .

RONALD ADAMS. I am in an auto camp on Route Sixty-six just west of Gallup, New Mexico. If I tell it perhaps it will help me. It will keep me from going mad. But I must tell this quickly. I am not mad now. I feel perfectly well, except that I am running a slight temperature. My name is Ronald Adams. I am thirty-six years of age, unmarried, tall, dark, with a black mustache. I drive a Buick, license number 6Y-175-189. I was born in Brooklyn. All this I know. I know that I am at this moment perfectly sane. That it is not me who has gone mad—but something else—something utterly beyond my control. But I must speak quickly. At any moment the link may break. This may be the last thing I ever tell on earth…the last night I ever see the stars…

• he is perfectly well and in no danger

• something strange and frightening is happening to him

• his car has broken down in New Mexico

• he is in trouble with the law

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CCSS.RL.6.6

CCSS.RL.7.6

CCSS.RL.8.6

CCSS.RL.5.6

Adams’s state of mind BEFORE leaving on his trip is best described as

• depressed about his future

• nervous and full of anxiety

• looking for trouble

• easygoing and carefree

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CCSS.RL.6.3

CCSS.RL.5.3

CCSS.RL.6.6

CCSS.RL.7.6

CCSS.RL.8.6

Which of the following words best replaces sinister as it is used in the passage below (paragraph 37)?

Let me explain about his appearance before I go on. I repeat. There was nothing sinister about him. He was as drab as a mud fence. Nor was his attitude menacing. He merely stood there, waiting, almost drooping a little, the cheap overnight bag in his hand. He looked as though he had been waiting there for hours. Then he looked up —— (Music stops.) He hailed me. He started to walk forward…

• threatening

• sincere

• interesting

• wholesome

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CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.6.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RI.6.4

CCSS.RI.8.4

Which of the following best describes Adams’s realization in the play’s final passage (paragraph 134)?

ADAMS (A strange voice). And so, I am sitting here in this deserted auto camp in Gallup, New Mexico. I am trying to think. I am trying to get hold of myself. Otherwise I shall go mad...Outside it is night—the vast, soulless night of New Mexico. A million stars are in the sky. Ahead of me stretch a thousand miles of empty mesa, mountains, prairies, desert. Somewhere among them, he is waiting for me…[SCENE: He turns slowly from the microphone, looking off-stage, in direction of HITCH-HIKER’s voice.] Somewhere I shall know who he is—and who...I am…

• No matter where Adams goes, the hitchhiker is going to be there waiting for him.

• The hitchhiker is the ghost of the man Adams hit with his car.

• Adams realizes that he was the hitchhiker all along.

• Adams realizes he can’t go on until his fever breaks.

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CCSS.RL.6.3

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.7.10

CCSS.RL.7.5

CCSS.RL.7.7

Which statement about the girl Adams offers a ride to is best supported by their interaction?

• She is also trying to get away from the hitchhiker.

• She’s only pretending to need a ride.

• She can’t see the hitchhiker and doesn’t believe there is one.

• She has been following Adams since he left New York.

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CCSS.RL.6.6

CCSS.RL.7.6

CCSS.RL.8.6

CCSS.RL.5.6

Which of the following statements about Adams is most likely true?

• His entire trip out west was just a dream.

• He died before he left New York.

• The hitchhiker is trying to tell Adams about his mother’s nervous breakdown.

• Everyone Adams has spoken to along the way has been a ghost.

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CCSS.RL.6.6

CCSS.RL.7.6

CCSS.RL.8.6

CCSS.RL.5.6

Match each line of dialogue with its speaker.

“All I want to do is to go on living—and I don’t see how I will very long, driving with you.”

• The girl

• Mrs. Whitney

• Adams

• Filling Station Man

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CCSS.RL.8.3

CCSS.RL.2.6

Match each line of dialogue with its speaker.

“It’s all taken place since the death of her oldest son, Ronald.”

• The girl

• Mrs. Whitney

• Adams

• Filling Station Man

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CCSS.RL.8.3

CCSS.RL.2.6

Match each line of dialogue with its speaker.

“He hailed me. He started to walk forward…”

• The girl

• Mrs. Whitney

• Adams

• Filling Station Man

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CCSS.RL.8.3

CCSS.RL.2.6

Match each line of dialogue with its speaker.

“A guy’d be a fool who started out to hitch rides on this road. Look at it.”

• The girl

• Mrs. Whitney

• Adams

• Filling Station Man

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CCSS.RL.8.3

CCSS.RL.2.6