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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. Which city stands on high pilings even though it sits on dry land?

2. When Marco Polo first tells his tales to Kublai Khan, he uses:

3. Khan's messengers advise him on the price of:

4. Of what use are Polo's tales to the emperor?

5. Polo states that Dorothea can be described by its canals, towers, people, and history, or how else?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the gods in the two religions of Isaura.

2. Describe life in Eutropia, which is made up of many individual cities of equal size.

3. What is it about Anastasia that it would make slaves of men?

4. When Khan and Polo pause in between their conversations, pondering the meaning of what's been said, what does each imagine or visualize?

5. Why does Kublai Khan listen to Marco Polo's fantastic stories about cities he's visited?

6. What do the different models of the city of Fedora show?

7. In Chapter 4, why does Polo dissect every city he describes to Khan?

8. What does Polo come to realize about language in Hypatia?

9. What is the significance of the large metal building located at the center of Fedora?

10. Why does Polo say its pointless to try to describe the city of Zaira?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Part 1) Why does Polo filter his stories through his memories of Venice? Why is it important for him to connect his stories of Khan's cities to some aspect of Venice? What does he gain from doing this?

Part 2) How does Emperor Khan react to the notion that Polo's accounts of his empire's cities are colored by his memories of Venice? Does it bother him in any way? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Quite a few of Polo's descriptions reveal the condition of a city in its past, present, and future versions.

Part 1) How is the time line or chronology of a city illustrated by Polo's stories? Cite a few examples.

Part 2) What is the significance to Khan of showing him his cities through their chronology? What meaning or message is Polo trying to impart? What type of understanding does he hope the emperor will reach from this time line information?

Essay Topic 3

Towards the end of the book, Khan's confusion regarding the state of his cities grows.

Part 1) How does Polo use chess and strategy in an attempt to help Khan understand how cities rise and fall?

Part 2) How is Khan's confusion reflected in the confusion represented by the cities described in Polo's stories?

Part 3) Do the two main characters ever find their way out of the maze of confusion? Explain.

(see the answer keys)

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