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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 the narrator feel about the person she is addressing in this book?

2. Who tries to intervene when Mr. Vercueil is being beaten?

3. What does Florence do with Bheki after the crash?

4. What does the narrator bring the person that lives near her house the morning after his return?

5. What does the narrator tell the person that calls her?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the narrator told about her plan to make a complaint?

2. What is the narrator surprised about when she observes Mr. Vercueil?

3. What does Vercueil explain to the narrator when they reach the boy's hospital room?

4. What does the narrator find near her garage?

5. What happens after the police van continued driving?

6. What happens when the narrator leaves to go shopping?

7. What does the homeless men decline after answering questions about his birthplace?

8. What is the aged woman diagnosed with at the start of Part One, pg. 3-15?

9. What did Bheki and another teenage boy do?

10. What does the narrator not understand about the townships?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss why Coetzee chose to use first person and a narrator to tell the story in the "Age of Iron".

Essay Topic 2

Based on the "Age of Iron", discuss whether suffering has any value for the characters.

Essay Topic 3

Define epistolary novel and discuss how "Age of Iron" is an example.

(see the answer keys)

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