65 pages • 2 hours read
S.A. BodeenThe Compound
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Quiz
Reading Check, Multiple Choice & Short Answer Quizzes
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.
Prologue-Chapter 5
Reading Check
1. How old was Eli when his family entered the Compound?
2. What does Eli call his little sister Terese?
3. Who did Rex pay to play football with the guests at Eddy and Eli’s birthday party?
4. What does Eli take from the room in the Compound that was supposed to be Eddy’s?
5. What is strange about the date on the note that says “Tell Phil”? (52)
6. What did Terese bring in the RV on the family’s trip to Washington?
Multiple Choice
1. What caused the family to enter the Compound?
A) a nuclear attack
B) civil war
C) climate change
D) a contagious disease
2. Why did Eli avoid looking at Terese for so long?
A) She bullied him when they were younger.
B) He blames her for Eddy being outside the Compound.
C) She reminds him of Eddy.
D) He knows that she is sick and might die.
3. Why is there no birthday cake for Eli’s birthday in Chapter 2?
A) Rex does not believe in eating sweets.
B) The family is nearly out of food.
C) Rex is angry at Eli and is punishing him.
D) The flour is spoiled.
4. What does Eli realize when he looks in Terese’s room?
A) She has been hoarding food.
B) She is building a mysterious electronic device.
C) She has moved out of her room.
D) She is more depressed than he realized.
5. What does Eli realize about the hydroponic garden?
A) There is something wrong with its water supply.
B) They are running out of bulbs to plant.
C) The food grown there is not very nutritious.
D) Some pest has gotten in and is eating their produce.
6. What puzzles Eli about the way his father runs the Compound?
A) the way he keeps secrets
B) the way he wastes resources
C) the way he plays favorites
D) the way he keeps changing his mind
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. Which members of Eli’s family are inside the Compound, and which members were left outside?
2. What does Terese tell Eli she thinks is true about the outside world, and what does their father say about Terese afterward?
3. What does Eli get as a present for his birthday in Chapter 2, and how does it relate to their current situation?
4. How does Eli react to the room with the yellow door?
5. What does Chapter 4 imply is true about the contents of the room with the yellow door?
6. When Eli looks back at the past, what does he wish was different about how his father behaved toward him and his siblings?
Chapters 6-10
Reading Check
1. What did Rex find in the animal feed?
2. What does the family call the children in the yellow-doored room?
3. How long is the time-lock set to stay locked?
4. What did Rex give the children at snack time instead of powdered milk?
5. Who finally touches Eli?
Multiple Choice
1. How did the MREs end up getting ruined?
A) The room where they were stored flooded.
B) The thermostat was turned up too high.
C) Rats got into them.
D) Someone put holes in their packaging.
2. What surprises Eli when he is using Eddy’s laptop?
A) It has pictures on it that he does not recognize.
B) All of Eddy’s documents have been erased.
C) It has a game on it that he has never heard of.
D) It connects to the internet.
3. What reason does Rex give Eli for not sharing the time-lock code with his wife?
A) She has mental problems.
B) She cannot keep a secret.
C) He no longer remembers the code.
D) He does not think she deserves to know.
4. What is Lexie’s opinion of their mother?
A) She is cruel.
B) She is easily fooled.
C) She is spoiled.
D) She is weak-willed.
5. What action of Rex’s at the family’s holiday party when Eli was ten demonstrates that Rex enjoys controlling other people?
A) He made his employees compete for their holiday bonuses.
B) He made an employee say “thank you” for cutting his pay.
C) He made an alcoholic drink wine.
D) He made vegetarians eat animal flesh.
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 fact does the reader learn about Eli in Chapter 2 that helps explain why he misses his dog in Chapter 6?
2. In Chapter 7, what example does Eli’s mother give him of Rex keeping secrets from her?
3. How does Rex explain the recently burned CDs?
4. What is the terrible truth about the children in the room with the yellow door?
5. What criticism of Rex does Eli remember Phil making?
Chapters 11-15
Reading Check
1. What is Eddy’s favorite food?
2. Who is Lucas?
3. Who does Eli believe that TwinYan1 is?
4. What does everyone believe happened to Eli’s family?
5. What does Eli do when Rex explains his plan for the Compound at the end of Chapter 15?
Multiple Choice
1. Where does Eli find out that Terese has been living?
A) the blue room
B) the yellow room
C) the garden
D) Rex’s study
2. What claim does Lucas make about Eddy?
A) He says that he is a clone of Eddy.
B) He says that Eddy will rescue them.
C) He tells Eli that Eddy is not real.
D) He tells Eli that he has talked with Eddy.
3. What information about Quinn and Lucas is Eli surprised to learn when he talks to Rex in the hallway?
A) Quinn and Lucas are not Rex’s biological children.
B) Quinn and Lucas are meant to replace Lexie and Terese.
C) Rex takes care of Quinn and Lucas when everyone else is busy playing music.
D) Rex intends to kill Quinn and Lucas so that he does not have to feed them.
4. What excuse does Rex give for taking away the laptop that Eli is using?
A) The laptop is obsolete.
B) He needs to replace its battery.
C) Eli needs to spend more time reading.
D) Eli should be focused on the garden.
5. What causes Eli’s mother to decide that it is finally time to confront her husband?
A) She finds out Rex sabotaged their food supply.
B) She and Eli talk about Quinn and Lucas.
C) She discovers that Rex left the kitten for Terese to find.
D) She finds out that Eli has talked to Eddy.
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 new plan does Rex reveal to Eli in the laboratory?
2. What causes Eli to wonder if the family has become “Godless”? (137)
3. In Chapter 13, what does Lexie tell Eli he has to do if he wants to prevent her from participating in Rex’s new project?
4. In Chapter 14, what is Eli told about his father’s mother?
5. How does Rex explain his motive for planning the Compound and keeping the family there?
Chapter 16-Epilogue
Reading Check
1. How does Eli get into Rex’s office?
2. Where does Eli find the paper with the word “hautbois” written on it?
3. What does Eli realize all of the code numbers have in common?
4. Who is the helicopter pilot that lands near Eli after he escapes?
5. What does Eli see on the beach that reminds him of Rex and makes him nervous?
Multiple Choice
1. What word does Rex say just before he passes out from the ergot poisoning?
A) kitten
B) Supplements
C) turducken
D) Eddy
2. What does Eli ask Lexie to do when he finds her in the kitchen with Cara?
A) throw out the ruined flour
B) cut his hair off
C) play a song for him
D) hide Cara from Rex
3. Why can’t Eli read what is written on the piece of paper he finds in Lexie’s oboe case?
A) It is written in invisible ink.
B) It is written in Russian.
C) Someone has blacked it out with a marker.
D) Someone has spilled water on it and the ink has run.
4. Who does Eli take with him when he opens the hatch in Chapter 20?
A) Clea
B) Terese
C) Lexie
D) Lucas
5. Whom is the family trying to get away from when they travel to Hawaii?
A) reporters
B) Rex
C) police
D) Phil
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 has Eli always blamed himself for Eddy being left behind when the family entered the Compound?
2. Why does Eli’s mother faint when she is searching the secret lab for a clue to the door code?
3. What happens when Eli tries to use the code to open the door that leads out of the Compound?
4. How does the Compound get blown up?
5. What is ironic about the way the family relates to one another after they rebel against Rex and flee the Compound?
Quizzes – Answer Key
Prologue-Chapter 5
Reading Check
1. nine (Prologue)
2. Little Miss Perfect (Chapter 1)
3. the Seattle Seahawks (Chapter 2)
4. a laptop (Chapter 3)
5. It is dated just two months earlier. (Chapter 4)
6. a kitten (Chapter 5)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Eli’s mother and father and two of his sisters are inside the Compound. His grandmother and his twin brother, Eddy, were left outside when his father closed the hatch of the Compound. (Prologue)
2. Terese tells Eli that she thinks there might be other people alive outside the Compound; afterward, Rex tells Eli that Terese is very imaginative. (Chapter 1)
3. For his birthday, Eli gets a copy of On the Beach. This book is about the aftermath of a nuclear war, which is appropriate for Eli’s situation, because he believes that they are living in the Compound because of a nuclear war. (Chapter 2)
4. When Eli passes the room with the yellow door, he does not go inside. In fact, he tries not to even think about what is inside it. (Chapter 3)
5. When Eli is thinking about how he and his siblings inherited their mother’s looks, he thinks that he does not know if this is true about “the ones in the yellow room” (50). This implies that there are children—siblings of Eli’s—in this room. (Chapter 4)
6. Eli wishes that his father was a warmer person who played with his children, instead of spending all of his time building the Compound. (Chapter 5)
Chapters 6-10
Reading Check
1. rat poison (Chapter 6)
2. the Supplements (Chapter 7)
3. fifteen years (Chapter 8)
4. breast milk (Chapter 9)
5. Quinn (Chapter 10)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. In Chapter 2, the reader learns that Eli never allows anyone to touch him. This makes it unsurprising that touching the dog is what he misses most about her. (Chapter 6)
2. Eli’s mother tells him about a Monet painting in her room that is supposed to be a reproduction, but she knows that it is the real painting. This makes her think that Rex switched it before bringing them into the Compound. (Chapter 7)
3. Rex tells Eddy that he has been able to get an internet signal for about a year and that he is using it to communicate with another survivor, who happens to be a music mogul. (Chapter 8)
4. Rex planned for these children to be born and raised as a potential food source for the rest of the family. (Chapter 9)
5. Phil said that Rex likes to make people do things that they do not want to do. (Chapter 10)
Chapters 11-15
Reading Check
1. jerky (Chapter 11)
2. Eli’s younger brother (Chapter 12)
3. Eddy (Chapter 13)
4. They died in a fire. (Chapter 14)
5. He punches Rex in the face. (Chapter 15)
Multiple Choice
1. B (Chapter 11)
2. B (Chapter 12)
3. C (Chapter 13)
4. A (Chapter 14)
5. D (Chapter 15)
Short-Answer Response
1. Rex says that he wants to clone a human being. He says that Lexie has agreed to carry the baby. (Chapter 11)
2. Playing with Quinn and Lucas and finally understanding them as his siblings makes Eli question the rest of the family’s ethics in viewing these children as a food source. (Chapter 12)
3. Lexie tells Eli that he has one day to connect to the internet and prove to her that the outside world still exists. (Chapter 13)
4. Gram tells Eli that his paternal grandmother was insane. (Chapter 14)
5. Rex reminds Eli about a time when Eli turned off the propane fueling the heater that was used to keep the driveway free of snow. He points out that Eli did this to keep his father home from work. He tells Eli that his motive for the Compound was the same—so that they could spend more time together as a family. (Chapter 15)
Chapters 16-Epilogue
Reading Check
1. with an axe (Chapter 16)
2. inside a nesting doll (Chapter 19)
3. They are the dates of nuclear attacks. (Chapter 20)
4. Phil (Chapter 21)
5. a Tums wrapper (Epilogue)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Eli deliberately got Eddy to hide in the Range Rover, knowing that the kitten would cause Eddy to have an allergy attack. His purpose was to keep Eddy away from the birthday celebration, because he wanted to be the focus of attention himself. (Chapter 16)
2. Clea was told by her doctor not to get pregnant again after she gave birth to Terese, because it would be dangerous for her. But Rex has pressured her into getting pregnant several more times, and now she is suffering the consequences. (Chapter 18)
3. Eli is able to input a few of the numbers in the code, but Rex shows up with Lucas and threatens to kill the child if Eli does not hand over the paper with the code on it. Feeling that he has no choice, Eli gives up the code. (Chapter 19)
4. Rex has wired the Compound with explosives, and Phil has the detonator. When Eli hits Phil the detonator is accidentally triggered and begins a ten-minute countdown before the Compound explodes. (Chapter 21)
5. Rex said that family togetherness was his goal in building the Compound and trapping his family there. But it is only after they rebel against him in order to team up and flee the Compound that the family really starts to get close to one another (Chapters 17, 19, 20, and 21, Epilogue)
