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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. Who does the narrator try to wake up?

2. What was Mr. Thabane's profession?

3. What does the narrator see being taken in an ambulance?

4. What does the narrator tell the young boy to do?

5. Who is the narrator's physician?

Short Essay Questions

1. What seems to ease Mrs. Curren's pain?

2. Why is Florence comforted inside the building?

3. What does the narrator wonder about her ability to love?

4. What is playing on the television when Mr. Vercueil brings the television into the room?

5. What do the narrator and Mr. Thabane discuss about comradeship?

6. What does Mrs. Curren tell the police when under medication?

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

8. What happens to Mrs. Curren when she is lying down under an overpass?

9. What does John ask money for?

10. What does John ask when he comes downstairs?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the principles which the youth live by in the "Age of Iron" and compare it with Mrs. Curren's principles.

Essay Topic 2

Analyze why Coetzee chose to write using fiction in "Age of Iron".

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the significance of the names, Hope and Beauty, Florence's daughters and how these names are used as an allegory in "Age of Iron".

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 546 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample