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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. Where is John sitting on Page 147?

2. What does the narrator wear as she walks down the street?

3. What does the narrator think of Vercueil's cooking?

4. What does Vercueil do while the national anthem plays on the TV?

5. Who serves as a guide for the people in the narrator's car?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Mr. Thabane advise the narrator to put a jacket over her head?

2. Why does Mrs. Curren call Dr. Syfret?

3. What has Mr. Vercueil become interested in?

4. What does the narrator recall about her daughter?

5. What is the narrator told when she asks who is responsible?

6. What was the narrator planning to do with her car?

7. Where do Mr. Vercueil and the narrator drive?

8. Who does Florence dress as at the start of Part Four?

9. What does the narrator think about when sitting in the car alone?

10. What directions does Florence give to the narrator when they arrive in the township area at the start of Part Three, pg. 87-115?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the symbolism of cancer in "Age of Iron" and why Coetzee chose to use a terminal disease to show the relationship with apartheid, believed a disease of hatred.

Essay Topic 2

Examine the correlation between Mrs. Curren's act of writing letters and her self preservation in the "Age of Iron".

Essay Topic 3

Define a character foil and discuss why they are used in literature. Take two character foils and analyze why Coetzee chose these characters as foils.

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