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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 did the Emperor do after 1872?

2. What did the Japanese say they would give to the American ships?

3. With what were the Americans who accepted the invitation impressed about the Japanese?

4. What stuck the Americans about the Japanese?

5. Who was Abigail Jernegan?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Perry's arrival precipitate?

2. What were some of the impacts of the treaty signing between the Americans and the Japanese?

3. How did the two cultures meet face to face and what did the people of the two countries think of the other?

4. Describe the exchange between Perry and the Japanese about shipwrecked sailors.

5. What did the Japanese do after the treaty and what impressed the Americans about the Japanese?

6. When was the Treaty House completed and what did Commodore Perry demand that they change?

7. What was the Commodore's first impression of Shimoda.

8. What was Hokkaido like and how did the first contact with them go for the Americans?

9. What sort of gifts did the Americans give the higher ranked Japanese?

10. How did the behaviors of the Shimoda villagers change and what was the result?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the following:

1. What do you think are the characteristics of a successful novel?

2. Analyze and discuss Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun based upon the criteria you decide upon in #1 and judge if it is a successful novel. Explain your rationale with specific examples.

3. Do you think the fact that Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun falls within the genre of historical fiction changes the criteria upon which its success should be judged? Explain.

Essay Topic 2

Many technologically advanced cultures then as now often view those who were more agrarian or less technologically advanced as inferior. Discuss the following:

1. Discuss why you think technologically advanced cultures often believe they are superior to agrarian or less technologically advanced cultures. Include Japan and the United States from the perspective of what you have read in Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun.

2. Do you believe technologically advanced cultures are superior to agrarian or less technologically advanced cultures? Defend your view.

3. Research the topic of how technology has sometimes changed people's life for the worse and write an informative essay on the subject.

Essay Topic 3

Many authors if queried would admit that they have an agenda for writing a particular novel. Discuss the following:

1. Define and give examples of the concept of "author agenda."

2. Do you think Blumbeg has an agenda in mind when she writes Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun?

3. What do you think would be Blumberg's agenda(s) (if she has one)? Give examples to illustrate how the agenda is fulfilled.

4. Do you think writers who have an agenda for writing should point it out in a preface?

5. How often do you think fiction is written with a clear agenda in mind by the author?

(see the answer keys)

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