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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. What does Marina think Fox should have told her?
2. What is one thing in Easter's small storage box?
3. What do some of the women do with Marina?
4. Who drives the boat that carries Dr. Swenson?
5. What does Benoit find in a vegetative area of the river?
Short Essay Questions
1. What does Swenson tell Marina about Easter?
2. What does Marina learn about the Martins and Rapps?
3. Who does Marina meet at the docks the next morning and where does he take her?
4. What does the tribe do occasionally when they go into the deep jungle and what does Swenson say about it?
5. How does Marina save Easter's life?
6. What is said about Dr. Rapp during the boat trip?
7. Why does Marina perform surgery and how does it go?
8. Who are on the boat going to the trading post?
9. What does Easter do that upsets Marina and how does Swenson react?
10. What shocks Marina one day as the boat from Manaus arrives, and how does she feel about it?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Many novels, and perhaps a majority, of novels ends on a happy note. Discuss the following:
1. Why do you think many (most?) people want what they perceive as a happy or good ending to a novel? Explain your opinion. Do you? Why or why not?
2. What are three reasons to read fiction? Discuss each one in light of State of Wonder and whether or not it fulfills all three, two or one of the reasons you mention. Give examples as to why State of Wonder is or is not successful in fulfilling the reasons you discuss.
3. Do you think reading solely for entertainment is as good a reason to read as any other? Why or why not? Can any work of fiction or non-fiction, no matter how poorly written, enlighten, teach, stimulate thought? Why or why not?
Essay Topic 2
Often, authors will write about "what they know," and sometimes knowing a little about the author makes the books more interesting. Discuss the following:
1. Research and give a brief biographical sketch of Ann Patchett.
2. What in Patchett's background may have helped him in writing State of Wonder? What may have influenced the way he depicts various characters and scenes?
3. Do you think there is always some of the author's own life in his/her novels? Why or why not? Give examples.
Essay Topic 3
Marina made a bad mistake during residency, not listening to her supervising physician and rushing a C section. Her actions in the hospital on the night of the botched C section were primarily caused not by her lack of skill, as she was well trained, but instead simply by a carelessness brought about because of her concerns that she had fallen in the eyes of her mentor. Marina clearly thought of Swenson as a mentor, but also elevated her to almost hero status. When she failed her, she was distracted, and as a result, made a profound mistake. Although forgiven by the mother and father of the blinded child, and also by the board, who allowed her to keep her residency, Marina was never able to forgive herself. She quit the program to avoid having to face Swenson and the others who knew of her mistake. She divorced her husband, in part, to distance herself from him and the friends who knew of the accident.
1. Do you think Marina had good reason to quit her residency program? Why or why not? Use examples from the story and your own life to support your answer.
2. Discuss the reasons you see for Marina divorcing her husband and cutting off relationships with friends she knew when she botched the C section. Use examples from the story and your own life to support your answer.
3. Do you think it is more difficult to learn from or perform for a teacher or mentor you idolize than one about whom you feel no such big feelings? Why or why not? Use examples from the story and your own life to support your answer.
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This section contains 1,415 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) |
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